The Ilvermorny Files
by StickWombat
Summary: Sometimes, History repeats itself... Calvin Edgley is a first year at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is a smart, driven, and capable, but he may not be prepared for the consequences of being the first in school history to be sorted into all four houses. Friends are made, secrets are discovered, and a killer is on the loose. Basically American Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1: The Magic School Bus

A note before we begin:

Hello everyone, thank you for clicking on this story. This is the first serious piece of writing I've ever done, and the first thing I've ever published to this site, so It's obviously not perfect. That being said, I hope to improve as I go and get better at writing interesting, compelling pieces. Hopefully the quality of this fic improves as the story progresses. I have some pretty ambitious plans for this story at the moment. I'm thinking about this being a five book series, with a focus of expanding the HP universe and adding more lore, as well as creating an interesting cast of OCs. Characters from this story will interact with characters from the original HP series, although it will not happen right away and interaction may be minimal in the beginning, largely due to the main setting of this story and also because I'd like to focus on my main characters for a bit at first. I'm dedicated to seeing this story through, however, because I feel like I have a very cool concept to work with that hasn't been overdone to the point of clichè yet, like the vast majority of Harry Potter fanfics eventually succumb to. I'd obviously like as many reviews as possible. It's the best way for this thing to get better, so be sure to give any feedback on what I could do better in the future!

Thanks,

StickWombat

* * *

The Ilvermorny Files

Book one

Chapter 1: The Magic School Bus

September 2nd, 2002.

Calvin Edgely stood on the corner of York and Wheeling, waiting for the bus to arrive. Next to him sat a ratty, old suitcase. It was a breezy September morning, and the leaves falling were brilliant shades of red and orange. The eleven year old was dressed according to the slightly chilly weather by wearing an old, ratty, sweatshirt. He was skinny. Very skinny, in fact, and the sweatshirt didn't fit well. He ran his fingers through his messy blond hair, attempting to extract the pet salamander that was currently nested up there. His attempt was unsuccessful, and the slippery amphibian avoided his grasp.

"Get out of there, little guy…" he muttered. He made another swipe at his salamander right as a jogger ran by. The runner slowed down for a second, giving Calvin a weird look. He smiled sheepishly as the man ran away. Giving up on his quest to grab his pet, Calvin checked his watch. It was a beat up old analog, and it had been a gift from his dad for his eighth birthday. Apparently it had belonged to his late grandfather, a man Calvin had never been fortunate to meet. The watch was in bad condition and barely even worked, but Calvin decided to wear it with honor. It was a nice watch if you looked behind the surface flaws. And it had character. At least, that's what his dad had told him when he'd given it away. Calvin squinted, trying to read the watch face. The bus was a couple of minutes late. You'd think the bus to a school for wizards would be a bit more punctual.

"Calvin!"

Calvin looked for the person who called his name and saw one of his neighbors heading his way out of the corner of his eye. He pretended to tie his shoe, wishing this was a conversation he could avoid. It wasn't that he didn't like Mrs. Jones, he just didn't want to get into a conversation that would last hours. She tended to talk too long, and was an exceptionally nosy lady. She'd probably find a way to get information about the "mysterious" boarding school he was attending. He didn't really have time to get sucked into one of these discussions. He had places to be! He had magic to learn! He didn't have time to talk with boring old people.

"How are you doing young man?"

Calvin turned around to look at the old woman. "...Fine," he managed.

"Your father tells me you're going off to an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. I'm sure that will be exciting."

"Yes, I'm pretty excited."

"Do you think you'll miss home?"

Calvin looked at her, incredulous. "Miss home? I've been waiting for this moment my whole life!"

Mrs. Jones didn't seem to like that response, but it was true. From a young age, Calvin had simply felt bored with the mundanity of life. But here, out of seemingly nowhere was the promise of a life as a wizard! A life filled with excitement, and intrigue, and even magic! It was a dream come true for any eleven year old boy, but especially him.

Which wasn't to say that he didn't like living as a… No-Maj. There were parts of being normal that he loved. He was sure that he'd miss his dad, and the little league team, and other things, but the promise of an escape from a life of a life of boredom as something like an accountant was certainly nice.

A horn honked and as Calvin turned around he realized the bus had showed up without him noticing somehow.

"It was nice talking to you, but I can't leave the bus waiting any longer!"

Mrs. Jones seemed to accept this begrudgingly and began to walk away.

The bus doors opened and Calvin looked up at the bus driver, an older looking man. He was dressed in the silk same robes that Calvin had seen everybody wearing when he went shopping for school supplies. And that included the lady who came to tell him he was a wizard.

"Last stop!" The bus driver yelled out.

Calvin stepped up to the curb."Is this the first year bus to Ilvermorny?"

"Yes it is," croaked the old man. "Ticket?"

Calvin rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up ticket, given to him a few days back. He handed it to the bus driver and stepped on the bus, wheeling his suitcase behind him. The doors closed silently behind him, and the man pressed a button on the dashboard labeled disillusionment.

The bus itself was fairly large and also full. Kids everywhere chatted amongst themselves, dressed in robes and wearing weird hats. Miniature figurines on broomsticks zipped and zoomed around. Tiny frogs made of chocolate in every direction. It was a scene from a movie, or a fantasy novel, or something.

He could feel the bus beginning to get lifted out of the sky, and he looked out the window, grinning. Of course the bus could fly!

He strode down the aisle and took an empty seat by the window, sighing happily. Today was the first day of the rest of his life. Magic was real, and everytime he thought about that it was hard to resist smiling. This was literally the kind of stuff he daydreamed about during school. Leaning back in his seat, he pulled a book out of his suitcase. It seemed like a good time as to try to catch up on as much magical theory before the first day of school as the bus ride was bound to take a while. He knew he would probably be at least a little bit behind, and so he figured he'd have to do whatever was possible to close the gap. There'd be time to make new friends later. He cracked open his old, dusty textbook, and was about to start reading when…

"Hey!" A boy had taken a seat next to Calvin. "I'm Jerome. Jerome Waters." He extended his hand. "I take it you're First-Gen, too?"

Calvin hesitated, and then a bit nervously shook the proffered hand. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"It's the clothes. We're about the only two people on the bus not dressed in fancy robes. We kinda stand out. There's something in your hair, by the way."

Calvin looked down at his ratty old sweatshirt, suddenly feeling slightly self conscious about his choice of clothing. He'd been told there'd be a dress code, but he wouldn't get his school uniform until the first day. At least Jerome didn't look much different as he was wearing a light blue Detroit Lions shirt.

"That's Sherman. He's my salamander." Calvin pulled the tiny creature out of his hair. "He has a cage, but I always feel bad putting him in it, and he seems to like hanging out on top of my head, so I let him stay up there most of the time." Sherman scrambled up his arm until he was perched on Calvin's shoulder. "Did you get a pet? I know it's optional."

"Nah, maybe if they offered something a little more normal. What kind of person has an owl for a pet? Or a Raven? Even a salamander is a little bit weird, no offense."

Calvin chuckled lightly. "None taken. I mean, I kind of have to agree, it's all pretty strange," Everything about the wizarding world seemed… medieval. He had been shocked to learn that quills, ink, and parchment paper were on the school supplies list.

"When did you learn about magic?" asked Jerome.

"Maybe a week ago when they sent somebody to go get school supplies with me and tell me I was a wizard. My dad just about fainted when he found out, which is understandable, I guess, but to me it was awesome. I've always wanted to escape getting a boring job one day, and this is a great chance to do that. Plus, it will be nice being able to do magic. I've been wanting to do that for ages. When did you find out you were a wizard?"

"Three days ago. My parents were… surprised, to say the least. I was supposed to go to this expensive private school this fall, but those plans are pretty much out the window. I'm still having trouble trying to process everything, though. Can you believe that there's this entire secret society of people who can do magic living right underneath our noses?"

Calvin shook his head.

"It's absolutely insane," Jerome continued. "You'd think a No-Maj would have found out by now." He sat silently for a moment, in thought, and then gestured towards Calvin's book. "What'cha reading?"

"Charms theory for beginners. I'm a little worried I'm gonna be behind everybody else, so I bought some extra books with some leftover scholarship money when I got to go shopping. Hopefully the library is big, too, because I don't know if these books are gonna be enough. I mean, most of the other students have lived with magic their whole lives, and I've known about it for only a few days. I figure a little bit of catch up can't hurt, right? I already finished the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook."

"The entire Defense Against the Dark Arts Textbook?"

Calvin nodded.

Jerome blinked, sitting back in his seat. "Wow. I didn't even think that we might be behind. You're not supposed to use magic before school, right?"

Calvin frowned. "I mean, I guess so, but that won't prevent people from learning the theory behind magic, right? There's probably some sort of wizarding elementary school, or tutor, or something. And even if there isn't, these other kids have been living a life with magic for years."

"I guess I could have been trying to catch up earlier. Some of these subjects are crazy. Magical Creature Care? Xylomancy? Runes?"

"You'll be fine." Calvin reassured him. "It's probably not a game changer or anything. Personally, I'm a little bit disappointed you can't take Xylomancy as a first year. Telling the future with twigs? That's probably the coolest thing ever. " He sighed contentedly. "Anyways, the person that took me shopping said we'd get our wands after we got sorted into houses. Do you have any clue how sorting works?"

"I wish I did. I asked my shopping guide about it. She was so secretive. Said I'd find out when I got to Ilvermorny."

"Dang." Calvin lamented. He slumped a little.

"It sounds like it's all supposed to be a surprise for us first years," Jerome remarked.

"That doesn't stop it from sucking though," Calvin added, scowling.

"I know how it happens," piped in a voice from behind them, interrupting their conversation. Calvin and Jerome whipped their heads around to see who had just talked. "My brother told me," said a girl their age with long, black hair and glasses. "He said we step in front of four statues, and we go to the house of whichever statue reacts to us. He said it's a very sacred moment and your sorting influences the rest of your life. He's in house Pukwudgie." She said proudly.

Calvin stared at her. "Have you been listening to us the whole time?"

"What? No, I just… I wasn't purposefully trying to eavesdrop." She said forcefully. "To be fair, you guys are kind of loud."

"Fair enough," Calvin said. "What's your name?"

"I'm Melissa. Melissa Donahue. I've never met a First-Gen before."

"Nice to meet you, Melissa. I'm Calvin and this is Jerome."

"Nice to meet you too."

"I don't know if this is nosy or anything," Calvin started, "But I kinda want to know. Did you grow up as… you know, a wizard?"

"Umm, yeah."

"What was it like? What kind of stuff did you do?"

"What do you want to know specifically?"

Calvin shrugged. "Pretty much everything, to be honest. What do you guys use for transportation? Why do wizards wear those weird robes? How does magic work?"

"Well, to answer your first question we use brooms, floo, portkeys and apparition for transportation mainly. Occasionally we use busses like this, but that's only for large numbers of people. For your second question… I don't really know. I've seen super old pictures and we wore the same outfits, so I'd guess part of it is tradition. And for your third question, I have absolutely no clue."

"Really?" Calvin asked. "Is it the kind of thing you learn in school, or does nobody know?"

Melissa shrugged.

"Dang." Calvin said. He'd been wanting to know how magic worked and what separated a wizard from a No-Maj. "Do you have any questions, Jerome?"

"...I dunno. Um, do you guys have any sports or anything?"

Melissa's eyes brightened. "Let me tell you about a game called Quodpot…"

* * *

Surprisingly, Calvin and Jerome were not nearly as enamored with Quodpot as Melissa was.

"I don't understand what's so brilliant about it!" Complained Jerome. "It's just an exploding ball! Why is a game like this so popular?"

"The Quodpot ball is the best part!" Argued Melissa. "Just imagine yourself racing on a broomstick. The ball in your hand could explode at any minute, and there's only one person between you and the basket. That feeling is indescribable. It's the best game ever, and it's not even close."

Calvin shrugged. "It's fine, sure, but I was expecting something more… fun from wizards, I guess."

"It's plenty of fun!"

"Forget I said anything. It's probably just not my kind of thing. Does anybody teach us how to fly on these brooms, or are we just expected to know how? Nobody ever taught me. I wouldn't ride, probably, but how is one supposed to learn?"

"Well, Ilvermorny has flying lessons, but they're generally only taken by First-gens and are optional."

"Are there other broom sports at Ilvermorny?" Jerome asked.

"I guess they have Quidditch, but my brother says they never get enough people to actually make a team. Pretty much everybody plays Quodpot, but there are a few other clubs here and there as well. Gobstones, dueling. Personally, I can't see why anybody would want to play anything other than Quodpot, but that's just me."

* * *

Their discussion continued for hours after that as Melissa did her best to get the two First-Gens updated on everything there was to know about the wizarding world, from goblins to garden gnomes. Her information was super valuable for two kids still new to magic, and the boys traded information about the wizarding world for information about the mundane one, which Melissa found to be very backward.

Eventually they arrived at their destination, which was Mount Greylock. A massive, towering peak in northwest Massachusetts, it was one of the most impressive things Calvin had ever seen. Perched at the top was the magnificent stone castle that was Ilvermorny, and he couldn't help but stand completely silently in awe and amazement. It was truly a testament to the luxury of magic that wizarding schools were gigantic and towering castles straight out of Arthurian legend.

"How do people miss that?" muttered Jerome as the students piled out of the bus. "You'd think No-Majs everywhere would spot a huge castle like that on top of a mountain. Isn't this place a state park?"

"Magic, if I had to guess," whispered Calvin, but even he was skeptical about how a building that large could be concealed from the majority of the world. That must've taken some powerful magic. Maybe there were men in black type wizards who erased memories.

No, that seemed illogical.

Calvin noticed all of the other students turning their attention to a woman standing near the front of the bus. She was tall, and wearing a fancy set of robes. It looked like she was the person who was supposed to receive the class.

"Alright, students. Line up, single file. I'm Professor Bridgewater, and I teach Potions at Ilvermorny." She started, "I want everybody to follow me, now, and I'll explain how we're going to get to the top of the mountain once everybody is inside the visitor center. This way. Hurry along, now."

The first years dutifully followed the professor into the visitor center which was surprisingly completely empty, which would've been surprising if it wasn't a Monday and if there wasn't a sign on the door that said the park was closed for the day. Calvin guessed that was by design of the school administrators so a flying bus carrying about fifty eleven year olds in funny clothes wasn't spotted.

The first years all lined up in front of the grand fireplace in the middle of the building and awaited instruction from the teacher once they got into the large main room of the visitor center. Once everybody was in, the woman who identified herself as Professor Bridgewater pulled a small pouch from her pocket.

"I need all of you to listen carefully and closely. I'm only going to say this once, and this is extremely important." she put a small amount of dust from the pouch into the palm of her hand and threw it into the fireplace, which lit up a brilliant emerald green in response. "For those of you who are unfamiliar with what we are about to do, the dust I threw into the fireplace is called Floo Powder. Each of you needs to walk into this fireplace. Before you do so, you need to yell out: 'Ilvermorny School Main Entrance!' loud and clear. It's important that you clearly state that you want to go to the main entrance, as we don't want anybody getting lost. This may be a strange experience for some of you, and it may be an uncomfortable experience at first, but it is important to stay calm and still when in the Floo. It's very dangerous if misused."

A first year raised her hand. "Why couldn't we just fly the bus to the top of the mountain?"

Mrs. Bridgewater pursed her lips. "Ilvermorny is protected by an advanced and powerful set of wards designed specifically to prevent intrusions from the sky. Normally, this keeps out dark wizards and other criminals and keeps students and staff safe, but in this case it keeps out the bus as well and forces us to enter the school through a preapproved floo point. Does that make sense?"

The first year nodded.

Calvin hesitated. He was a little nervous about just blindly walking into a fire that would transport him to the castle. He liked to think that he had been pretty understanding regarding the safety of magic throughout the day, (He had ridden on a flying magical bus, for crying out loud!) but walking into a fire, magical or not, just didn't seem like a great idea to him at the moment. He didn't like fire. Not one bit. Carefully, he pulled Sherman the salamander out of his hair and tucked him in his pocket to keep him safe. The last thing he wanted to do was lose the little guy in this thing. He turned around to Melissa, who was standing behind him. "Have you done this before? Is it dangerous? Are there any side effects?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it dangerous, but it is pretty disorienting your first couple times. Not anywhere near as bad as a portkey or apparition. I'd say the closest thing to the feeling you get is being seasick. You might get a little dizzy, but it won't be much worse."

The line had already started moving and was advancing quickly. There were only four people ahead of him now.

"Ilvermorny School Main Entrance!"

Make that three. Calvin started rocking on his heels slightly, trying unsuccessfully to think about anything other than fire. Fire just made him think about his mom, which was not something he didn't want to relive.

"Ilvermorny School Main Entrance!" Two more students ahead of him. He cursed the fact that he was near the beginning of the line. Maybe if he had more time…

"Ilvermorny School Main Entrance!"

That was a stupid thought. No use worrying about it anymore. He'd just have to suck it up and get it over with. Hopefully this thing was quick. In and out.

"Main entrance!" Jerome stepped into the fireplace, disappearing in the flames.

Alright. Now or never. He took a deep breath. "Main entrance!" Calvin stepped into the fireplace, with a battered old suitcase in tow and salamander hiding in his pocket.

Everything around him turned emerald green, and for a second there he floated in the eternal void with nothing but fireplaces as far as the eye could see.

And then, he shot forward. He felt like he was flying at 100 miles per hour in every direction at once, and then getting compressed and stretched out all at the same time. Fireplaces of all shapes and sizes whizzed past his line of vision, and there was a constant sense of being lost, as if you had no clue which direction you were going in. He gripped onto his suitcase handle until his knuckles turned white and began to grit his teeth.

Calvin officially hated floo travel.

It was the single most nauseating experience he had ever been through, but it was over almost as quickly as it had started. Almost. He sensed himself approaching a fireplace, and squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he shot forward towards it. As he exited the floo system, Calvin shot out of the fireplace like a cannon, stumbling and flailing blindly. He crashed into a boy with sandy blond hair standing a little bit away from the fireplace who had been talking to some friends. They collapsed, limbs entangled.

"Watch it, buddy!" snapped the boy he had slammed into. He pushed himself off of Calvin and stood over him. He turned to his friends. "It's always easy to spot the mudbloods, isn't it? They tend to bumble around a little bit more than the rest of us when we do stuff like this." He turned his attention to Calvin, who was still laying on the floor. "You better watch yourself. If you do anything else like that to me I'll make your life living hell. I'm capable of making that happen."

Calvin's face reddened with embarrassment as he heard the laughter around him. He didn't know what a mudblood was, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. And what was with that threat? All he'd done was accidentally bump into the guy. It wasn't like he'd punched him or anything…

He slowly got up and brushed himself off, making a conscious effort to carry himself with as much dignity as possible. He spotted Jerome and made his way towards him, trying to forget about the embarrassment that had just occurred.

"I'm never doing that again. Ever. That was so disorienting."

His friend laughed. "C'mon, it wasn't that bad. I'm sure you'll get used to it eventually."

Calvin rolled his eyes. "Riiight," he checked his pocket. Good, Sherman was alive and well. His pet salamander was already climbing back to his perch on top of his head. He also still had his suitcase. He supposed he'd do it again if he had to, but only if it was absolutely necessary.

Melissa walked by behind them at that moment. "How'd it go?"

"Somebody had a rough time," said Jerome. "You should've seen him come out of the fireplace," Calvin groaned, and Melissa began to laugh.

"You'll get the hang of it," she reassured him.

"I'm sure I will," he responded.

Mrs. Bridgewater walked past them, counting heads. "Fifty-four... Fifty-Five… Fifty-Six... Good heavens! All of the students are accounted for. This is the first time everybody's gotten to the destination correctly in years!" She sighed with relief. "Most of the time a First-Gen or two manages to screw it up…" she murmured under her breath. Calvin assumed that she hadn't meant for anybody to hear her comment, but apparently he had good hearing. "All of you students go straight down that corridor now. A little bit down the hall you'll see a man with some parchment that has all of your names on it. You'll all need to be lined up in alphabetical order so you can be sorted. Oh, and leave your luggage here, it will be sent to your dorms once you are sorted."

Calvin put Sherman back in his cage and left him with his luggage. A slight thrill went through him as he followed the other students down the long hallway. He was excited! This was his chance to finally take his first step on his way to learning magic. His whole life, all of those times he had accidentally teleported from one room to another, all of those times he'd summoned a toy into his hands or made objects float. All of those times he'd been sure was just hallucinations… He'd be learning to do all of that on command now! To be completely honest, this was shaping up to be the best day of his life!

The students reached the end of the hallway where a large pair of double doors stood ominously. A rather short man in long, flowing robes sporting a curly, lengthy beard stood next to the doors, peering at the list and muttering to himself. He looked up and smiled warmly, showing off a set of crooked and yellowing teeth. "Why hello first years! I'm Professor Winston. I'm almost done double checking this list. I'll be with you shortly." He continued inspecting the parchment and wrapped up shortly thereafter, clearing his voice. "Hem hem! I'm going to announce your names, and you will form a single file line based off of the order in which your names are read. Ames, Sarah… Brabham, Derek…"

The first years shuffled slowly in order to line up, and Calvin stood right behind Melissa near the front. Jerome was the last person in line.

"In a few moments we will begin the sorting ceremony. Here at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry students are divided into four houses. House Horned Serpent favors scholars, House Wampus favors Warriors, House Thunderbird favors adventurers, and House Pukwudgie favors healers. It is very crucial that you understand the importance of this ceremony. For better or worse, the sorting affects your entire time at school, and likely your time afterwards as well. Needless to say, this will be incredibly important, so you must do exactly what I say. When it is your turn to be sorted, you are to stand in front of statues of one of the house mascots and one of them will choose you. Stand on the Gordian knot in the center, and stay silent during the sorting. When your sorting is complete, you may go get your wand. Only one student is allowed in the sorting room at a time, so some of you might be waiting a while."

"House of healers? I'd rather lose my magic than get put in the house of healers…" muttered the boy behind Calvin.

Jeez. That sounded extreme. To be completely honest, he'd be fine in any house. That being said…

"House Thunderbird sounds like fun," Calvin whispered to Melissa. "I'd love to be an adventurer."

The doors slowly slid open, with stone grinding on stone loudly, and the first girl in line walked tentatively into the next room.

"SARAH AMES!" boomed a large voice, and the doors closed behind her as she walked through.

It took a few minutes for the doors to reopen, and when they did the next kid stepped up, accompanied by another introduction. The remaining two kids in front of Melissa stepped through the door in due time, and pretty soon it was her turn to get sorted.

"Good luck," said Calvin.

"Thanks," she replied, giving him a thumbs up as she stepped into the large sorting room.

"MELISSA DONAHUE!"

The doors slid shut behind her.

Calvin stood still for the next several minutes, waiting patiently. When the two doors slid open, he stepped into a gigantic circular room somewhat nervously but also with an air of calm at the same time.

"CALVIN EDGLEY!" The doors slid shut and closed him off from the rest of the year. Calvin took in his surroundings. Directly in front of him were four large wooden statues. The two on his left, Horned Serpent and Thunderbird, were easy to identify. The statues on his right were a little more difficult. One of them looked somewhat similar to a cat, and the other one… he wasn't exactly sure. It didn't look like anything he'd seen before. A balcony above him scaled the upper perimeter of the room, and it looked like the entire Ilvermorny student body stood up there. There was a second balcony, slightly higher up that was square. This one was occupied by teachers. Everybody was watching him, weren't they?

"STEP INTO THE CENTER OF THE ROOM!"

Calvin nodded silently and made his way towards the middle, noticing the symbol directly in the middle on the marble floor. It looked like a bunch of tangled up string. The Gordian knot, wasn't it? He stepped on the symbol.

Nothing happened at first. The statues stayed statues. The room was eerily quiet and for a moment Calvin wondered if anything would happen at all.

And then everything happened at once.

The crystal on the forehead of the snake began to glow a blinding light. The Thunderbird beat its wings, creating a gust of wind. The statue resembling a cat let out a deafening roar right afterwards, and the final statue raised it's arrow and pointed it right at Calvin's head. What? What was happening? Did he do something wrong? He felt like he'd done something wrong. He put his hand over his ears as the cat thing's roar got louder and louder. He had to squint to be able to see through the Serpent's gemstone that was shining so brightly, and had to brace himself to not get knocked over by the beating of the Thunderbird's wings. It seemed like the only statue not trying to actively destroy him was the one with the arrow. The Pukwidgie.

The room descended into chaos, but it didn't last long until the source of the big, booming voice -who Calvin had just identified as the person sitting front and center on the balcony- decided to speak.

"SILENCE!"

Just like that, all of the talking died down, and the man in the balcony spoke once more, although this time it was much quieter. It seemed like people listened to this guy. Was he the headmaster? He was middle aged, with his head shaved bald and a mustache. He was super far away, but Calvin still sensed an incredibly intimidating aura from the man. His eyes bore directly into Calvin, and he couldn't help but feel vulnerable. That sense of vulnerability went away when he noticed the look of surprise and calculation on the Headmaster's face. He looked a bit worried. "Mr. Edgley, you are the recipient of a great honor. Very rarely is a single person chosen by more than one house, much less four. In fact, I don't believe it has ever happened in the history of the school. You have a decision to make. You can choose between any of the four houses as your home for the next seven years of your education, although I must advise that you choose wisely and take your time."

Calvin thought for a moment, thousands of thoughts whirring through his head at the same time. He ran through each of the houses in his mind. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't think of himself as a healer. In fact, he was slightly surprised that he had been chosen by the Pukwudgie statue, but perhaps it had seen something in him. Nevertheless, Calvin wasn't sure if it was the right fit for him, so House Pukwudgie was out. He thought about House Wampus, house of warriors. No, that one was out as well. He'd never go out of his way to get into a fight without a really good reason. That left Horned Serpent and Thunderbird, both of which seemed like good fits. He yearned for adventure, and the promise of learning magic at Ilvermorny certainly fueled the desire he had to adventure in this new world. That being said, he'd gotten a newfound sense of academic responsibility when he'd gotten his Ilvermorny invitation. Perhaps that was the right fit.

This was hard. He couldn't stop thinking about what Professor Winston had said regarding the importance of the sorting ceremony.

Something about house Thunderbird called to him more than house Horned Serpent did. He'd felt it a little tug in his gut when he learned about the four houses, and he felt it again, right now as he stared at the statue. Ok. It was decided then.

"Thunderbird," he said somewhat quietly, and he was met with a chorus of cheers from the Thunderbird section of the balcony who had still managed to hear him. Another pair of doors slid open directly in front of him, and he walked through it quickly. He knew what was happening next. He was getting a wand. He grinned and followed a small corridor into another room, this one much smaller than the one for sorting. There was a woman standing at a large front desk, and behind her sat rows upon rows of what Calvin could've sworn were shoeboxes. Calvin spotted Melissa on her way out of the room, brand new wand in hand.

"Hey!" She greeted him. "What house did you get sorted into?"

"Thunderbird. How bout you?"

"Same. I wasn't sure if that's where I was gonna go at first, because my brother was a Pukwudgie, but my sorting was fairly straightforward. I guess it doesn't matter what house your family is in. I'm pretty happy with it, though. How did yours go? Any complications? Apparently Robert Candor's sorting dragged on a little long."

"It was… er, kinda complicated, but in a good way, I think. Maybe. I'll tell you later, though. I wanna get my wand first."

"Ok, sounds good." Melissa walked off to join the rest of the Thunderbirds.

"Mr. Edgley, if you'd come over here."

Calvin walked over to the counter, where the wand expert had already stacked up about five boxes. She opened up the top box and handed the wand to Calvin. "Try this one out. Just give it a little flick."

Calvin obliged and got no results. He tried all of the other wands on the counter and still nothing happened.

"Hmmm, this may be a little difficult. Hold on one second." She ran behind the shelves and returned with three more boxes. "One of these should work."

Calvin tried the first one and got a few sparks. The second wand yielded similar results. The third wand, however, gave very different results. It shot off a group of sparks and almost caught the woman's clothes on fire.

"Very peculiar," she muttered after shrieking and flailing around for a few minutes. "15 and ¾ inches, ash, and a yeti fur core. Good for dueling. The wand chooses the wizard, as the old wandmaker's saying goes. It will be interesting to see the things you and this wand accomplish together. Very interesting. You'd best be going now."

Calvin was pretty sure she made the exact same cryptic remark about everybody's wands, but he didn't really care. He made his way towards the stairs marked for the Thunderbird section of the balcony, fidgeting with his wand in his hand. It looked just like an ordinary stick, but he could feel an innate sense of power emanating from it. It wasn't particularly strong, but it was definitely present in a way that let Calvin feel the magic around it, if only slightly. When he got to the top of the stairs, he noticed Melissa standing at the edge of the balcony and gave her a wave to let her know he was on his way over. Calvin tried to squeeze through a pair of students, but he was blocked off, and they were deep in conversation.

"What do you wanna bet that firstie is in the paper tomorrow?"

"Pfft. You and I both know that's gonna happen. It's not even a fair bet! They always make a huge deal whenever something like this happens. I swear, every time somebody gets chosen by multiple statues they act like they're destined to become the next President of MACUSA or something."

"To be fair, 3 out of the last 5 people to get chosen by multiple statues did become president. Even the ones who didn't went on to be successful. Besides, he didn't get chosen by just two statues, he got chosen by four. Honestly, I feel bad for him. Imagine all of the pressure he's going to receive now."

"Man, you always gotta slip random facts into conversations."

"It's a gift…"

Calvin gulped. He walked around the students after an opening appeared, and he made his way to the edge of the balcony by Melissa just in time to see Kate Franklin become the newest member of House Pukwudgie.

"So," began Melissa as he walked over. "I overheard some students about your sorting. Do you have any idea how rare it is to get selected by all four houses? I've never heard of it happening before. It's generally a once in a generation event when someone gets chosen by two houses, but I don't know if anybody's even been chosen by three!"

Calvin just stood silently for a moment. "Yeah, I know. I guess it's kind of cool." He forced a smile. He couldn't stop thinking about what those other kids had said.

"Kind of? Just kind of? You made Ilvermorny history on your first day. Most of us would be lucky to do something like that at all, and you did it on your first day. I'd say that was a little bit more than just kind of cool."

Calvin shrugged. "You have a point. But if I'm gonna be honest I'm a little bit worried. I overheard some older kids talking. I think there's gonna be a lot of pressure on me to do well and be the President of something called MACUSA. And I'm gonna be in the paper tomorrow, apparently. I'm worried. What if I don't live up to those expectations? What if I just fail?"

"I didn't even think about that," Melissa admitted. "To be completely honest, I have no idea. Try not to think about any of that. Just focus on what's important to you, not what anybody else expects you to do."

Nigel Johnson walked up to be sorted. Melissa noticed Calvin wince.

"What?"

"I may have had a bad interaction with that guy."

"What happened?"

"Well, I crashed into him after I came out of the floo, and he got kinda pissed. He said something to his friends along the lines of: 'It's always easy to spot the mudbloods, isn't it? And then he threatened me, I think."' He gave her a serious look when he saw she looked upset. "What does mudblood even mean? Is it bad?"

Melissa frowned. "It's a slur. He basically insulted your lineage. You know, because you're a First-gen. It's not something that's socially acceptable to say, especially for something as minor as crashing into someone. Apparently Nigel didn't get the memo. That guy's always been a complete moron."

"Wow, there's a slur for people like me?"

She nodded.

Calvin's brow furrowed. "I don't know how to feel about that. Wait, do you already know Nigel?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "He's a total jerk, but it's not entirely his fault. His parents are a couple of elitists and they taught him to act the exact same. And nobody says anything about his family because his dad is a high ranking government official. The entire family is a pain to be around, but I have to go to way too many parties with that kid."

The pair continued to watch their classmates get sorted, making sure to cheer along with the rest of the Thunderbirds everytime a new student joined their house. They both cheered extra loud when Jerome got chosen by the Thunderbird statue. He met up with them after getting his wand, and right after that all of the students began to exit the large circular room. Calvin tapped an older student on the shoulder.

"Where are we going?"

"We're headed towards the mess hall for the opening night feast. You'll be able to find your way down there if you follow the crowds. It's not very far."

Calvin nodded and the three of them made their way towards the mess hall. His stomach grumbled. He was hungry.

* * *

When they got to the mess hall, Calvin, Jerome and Melissa found some seats at an empty circular table. Students were already chattering away, and the sounds of conversation filled the room. The mess hall was gigantic, with about fifty smaller circular tables with chairs throughout the area and an incredibly long rectangular one in the back of the mess hall. Seated at the long table were the teachers, Calvin presumed, as he recognized Professor Bridgewater amongst them and had seen the rest sitting in the upper balcony during the sorting ceremony. Their plates, while empty at first, filled up with platters upon platters of food as soon as once they sat down. Calvin didn't want to wait any longer, and he noticed those around him digging in as well, so he began to eat. The food was, in his humble opinion, the best thing he'd ever had, and it wasn't long before he started to get seconds. Jerome and Melissa followed his lead shortly after him.

"I love magic," said Jerome as he helped himself to another bowl of pudding. "I've never had anything that's tasted this good in my whole life."

"I second that," said Calvin. "I can't believe what I've missed out on all this time." He looked to Melissa. "Is wizard food always this good? Or is this a special occasion?"

Her mouth was full, so she nodded in confirmation.

"Hmm," Calvin mused. I suppose if you have magic you can make anything taste better because it's all a lot easier to make.

All of the talk in the mess hall died down suddenly when the man sitting at the front of the table stood up and cleared his throat, ready to speak. He was the person who had intervened during Calvin's sorting. The headmaster, presumably. He held up his wand, and it lit up at the tip a bit. He pressed the wand against his neck and it amplified his voice, if only slightly. Kind of like a microphone.

"Hello, students. I trust you all had a magnificent summer and I hope you are all ready for the new school year. For those of you who are new, I am Mr. Sagan, the Headmaster here at Ilvermorny Shool of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I only have a few words and then I will let you continue eating and return to your common rooms before curfew. First, I would like to introduce our newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Daphne Greengrass. She will be replacing Professor Spindly, who retired last spring." A young woman in her twenties stood up and waved. Mr. Sagan continued. "This is her first year as a teacher, but I assure you she is one of the most qualified Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers we've had in a while. Second on the things I must address tonight, I would like to give a very warm welcome to our new first years. Your schedules should show up in your dorms tomorrow morning. If you need any help, even for something as simple as finding the location of a class, I'd advise you find a Student Assistant. You'll be able to locate them from the badge on their robes. If you find yourself needing a little more help, feel free to ask a teacher. For some of you older students, I'd advise you to continue to pay attention to your studies. I know it is easy to slack off, especially for seventh years, but you mustn't go down that path. Let's see… two more things. Tryouts for various clubs and sports will start on September 14th and end on the 21st. This includes Quodpot, Dueling Team, Gobstones, and Young Arithmancers, among others. More details about those will be posted on the common room information board, or you can gather pamphlets from the teacher leaders of these specific clubs. The final thing is regarding a change in the disciplinary direction of our school. This is the first year where we are experimenting with the absence of house points. The house points system is not very effective and doesn't promote inter house behavior, and we have had major problems with that in previous years. That does not mean that we are to stop giving detentions, however, and they will likely be even more frequent, so you all should remain on your best behavior."

An uproar started after the Headmaster's last comment, but Mr. Sagan waved at them to be quiet.

"I think that's about it, and I hope you all have a tremendous school year."

He sat down after that and a lot of students left the mess hall, many of them chatting somewhat angrily. Apparently some kids were into the house points system. Who knew.

Calvin noticed an older Thunderbird student trying to gather up first years to lead to the common room.

"Let's follow him," Calvin said, and his two friends trailed behind him as he made his way to the growing cluster of first years.

"...It may be hard in the beginning, but you'll start to get the hang of navigating the castle," the older student was saying to the first years. He adjusted the Student Assistant badge on his front. "I'm Marcus, by the way. Let's get going now, I think we have everyone…" his eyes darted over to Calvin, Melissa and Jerome and stayed on Calvin just long enough for it to be slightly uncomfortable.

Marcus led the students down the corridors. Calvin was perplexed by some of the things he saw. Talking paintings, suits of armor that moved on their own, gargoyles that towered menacingly on top of pillars that sneered at him. It was a lot to take in. He was also pretty sure he saw a winged horse flying around the grounds when he peeked through one of the windows and it made him wonder if it would be crazy to think a dragon may be somewhere on the grounds. Maybe in the woods behind the castle that he had spotted? It had only been a day, but Calvin had slowly learned to suspend his disbelief even when he saw some of the more surprising aspects of magic. One thing Calvin was not a fan of was the eyes of other students that seemed to follow him throughout the hallways. They made him shudder. Hopefully the novelty of his sorting would wear off and people would stop staring at him after a few days, but deep down, Calvin knew he wouldn't be that lucky. Melissa had said this was historic. He didn't think people would forget about that so easily.

If he was gonna be honest, he was a bit mad. It seemed like expectations for him would be high. What if he didn't meet them?

When the group reached the entrance to the common room, located on the third floor by the higher level classes, Marcus stopped and held out his hand next to a small, sleek slab of marble on the wall.

"This right here is your key into the common room. If you place your palm on the marble, your magical signature will be cross checked with your record in the Ilvermorny registry. If the registry detects you as a Thunderbird, you're in." He pressed his hand against it to demonstrate, and the doors slid open. The first years oohed and aahed appropriately, and then they flooded into the common room. It was not overly fancy but still possessed a homey feeling. It almost reminded Calvin of a log cabin, what with the fireplace, wooden walls, and the large couch in the middle. It even looked like there was a study corner. There were two flights of stairs on the far wall, one to the left and one to the right. Marcus pointed to the stairs. "Boys, go up the stairs on the left and head down to the first year dorms. Girls, take the stairs on the right and do the same. Lights out in thirty minutes!"

Calvin and Jerome waved goodbye to Melissa and made their way towards their common room with the other four boys. Calvin realized he didn't know any of their names yet and hadn't even really interacted with them aside from a few waves here or there. He decided to make a formal introduction in the morning, as it appeared that everyone was growing more and more tired by the second, himself included. Today had been draining. The long bus ride, the floo, the sorting, and then dinner.

The dorm had bunk beds, and Calvin and Jerome immediately decided to share one. A quick game of Rock Paper Scissors decided that Jerome would get the top bunk. Calvin gathered all of his luggage, including Sherman's cage, and set it beside his bunk. He brushed his teeth and then changed, making his way under the covers and falling asleep shortly afterwards, grateful to finally get some rest.

* * *

Location: Unspeakable North American headquarters, somewhere in upstate New York.

Date: September 2nd, 2002

Time: Unknown, possibly late

* * *

Unspeakable 84-C leaned back in his chair lazily, taking a sip out of his coffee mug. He yawned. Graveyard shifts were unbearable. Nothing interesting ever seemed to happen when he was on duty watching the Alert Hub. And why should it? The interesting things only happened in his department when the world was ending or something. The only alarms that had gone off while he was on duty were accidental. In fact, there were times when he wondered why the emergency prediction branch of the unspeakables even had two members on duty at a time given how rarely anything ever happened here. To him, it seemed like a waste of the organization's resources, but it wasn't exactly the kind of thing you tell your boss.

He glanced over at his partner, who was dozing away to his right. Unspeakable 17-W had only joined a few months ago, and so she still was relatively inexperienced. Fresh out of the academy.

Naturally, she'd been dumped in the most monotonous department of all, as was what happened to most of the new recruits. Poor kid. She probably wasn't doomed like he was, though. Eventually she'd move on like most of the people in this department and would be promoted to something a little bit more interesting after a couple of months. Everybody got a better gig eventually.

Well, everybody except him, that was.

Unspeakable 84-C rubbed his eyes and looked for his wand so he could cast a quick Tempus spell. How much time did he have left in this Merlin damned shift, anyways? He took a sip from his coffee and groaned.

His search for his wand was interrupted by the sound of an alarm coming from the far left side of the Alert Hub. He did a spit take and dropped his mug, scrambling down towards the end of the Alert Hub frantically. He had to blink a couple of times when he noticed that not one, but two alarm lights were going off.

The third light in the alarm section labeled Ilvermorny was wailing loudly and flashing a bright red light.

The eighth light in the alarm section labeled Prophecies was flashing bright blue. It was also completely silent.

Unspeakable 84-C ran down to where his partner was sleeping. Somehow she hadn't woken up in the commotion. He shook her awake frantically.

"Wha-who… Is the shift already over?" She asked confusedly, squinting so she wouldn't hurt her eyes against the light.

Unspeakable 84-C just shook his head. 17-W just looked at him confusedly for a moment, but that confusion turned into realization when she noticed the two alarms going off on the other side of the Alert Hub.

"Oh, shit."

84-C nodded. "Do you have the book?"

17-W checked her robe pockets. "I-uh, yeah," she pulled it out. Which alarms is it?"

84-C racked his brain. "Third one in the Ilvermorny section. And, um, the eighth one in the Prophecies one. And the Ilvermorny one was red and the prophecies one was blue. And… Oh! The Ilvermorny one was making noise, but the prophecies one was silent."

17-W nodded as she flipped through the pages. Her expression became horrified as she landed on one of the pages. She handed the book to 84-C so he could read it.

"Shit," he muttered. "I've never seen such a specific alarm combination described in the book like that. I thought it was maybe a fluke, but… this is serious. As in, probably the most serious thing to ever happen to this branch."

"So you think the alarms are connected?"

"Without a doubt. A combination like that does not show up coincidentally. We need to tell somebody. This probably has enough clearance to go straight to Unspeakable 1-M, in fact."

"Alright. Do we tell him in the morning?"

"No. We tell him right away. This is way too important to wait. Grab your things. We're going straight to the head Unspeakable…"

* * *

Last second author's note: I'm putting a poll up on my profile about whether I could keep each book of this series in one entry or separate it. Be sure to vote if you can.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Day of Classes

The Ilvermorny Files

Book one

Chapter 2: The First Day of Classes

September 3rd, 2002

* * *

Calvin woke up the next day at the crack of dawn. Early rays of sunlight had yet to peek into the curtains, and so the room was dark as a result. Calvin scanned the room, looking at his dorm mates. They were all asleep. He checked his watch, noting the time. 5:37 AM. Still incredibly early, but Calvin knew he probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. He always woke up early whenever he slept in new places, and it was probably going to take a little bit before he got used to sleeping here.

He reluctantly crawled out of bed, making an effort to be as quiet as possible. As he got up, Calvin noticed a pile of robes and a slip of parchment resting on top of his suitcase at the foot of the bed. In fact, the same things sat at the foot of every bed in the dormitory.

Hmm. He hadn't noticed those last night. Someone must've set them out.

He frowned and made his way towards his pile. The robes (which somehow were fitted to him perfectly) were a deep blue with trim that, while close to maroon, had a little bit more purple to it. They were fastened by a brooch with the same tangled string symbol that Calvin had seen on the floor of the sorting room the previous day, and they had the Thunderbird house crest embroidered on the front. He put on the robes, struggling a bit to find the correct opening for his arms. The material flowed, and was perhaps the smoothest thing he had ever worn in his entire life. He picked up the parchment and started reading. It appeared to be his class schedule. He had Potions scheduled first, and then American Magical History. Following that was Charms, Magical Creature Care, Transfiguration, and Magical Flora. He finished his day with Defense against the Dark Arts.

Calvin folded up his schedule and took the charms textbook from his suitcase. He checked on Sherman in his cage, making sure to give him a healthy supply of treats, and then headed towards the common room to read. He was still slightly worried that he was going to be behind his wizard raised peers. Calvin might've been fairly advanced in No-maj school, but he generally didn't apply himself too much academically. As a result, his newfound studiousness surprised even him, although his appetite for learning was certainly exponentiated when he discovered magic was real. There were so many new concepts to explore! Magic was so jaw dropping that he couldn't simply let any of its mysteries go unsolved. He had already finished reading the entire Defense textbook and was a good chunk of the way through Charms. As a result, he had already learned the incantations and wand motions to various basic spells such as Wingardium Leviosa, Lumos, and Expelliarmus, but he hadn't practiced actually doing any actual magic yet as he had already been told multiple times that performing magic outside of school while underage was illegal. Besides, there wasn't much he could reasonably do without a wand.

He found a comfortable looking armchair by the common room fireplace and got lost in his book for the next hour and a half or so. Eventually, the sun rose, and more students began to trickle into the common room. Most of the older Thunderbirds on their way to breakfast didn't even pay attention to the little first year sitting in the corner, nose buried in a book. Melissa and Jerome both woke up near 7:00, and they compared schedules on their way down to the mess hall, all three of them wearing their fancy new Ilvermorny school robes.

"So let me get this straight. The three of us all share Potions, Transfiguration, and Defense against the Dark Arts. Jerome and I have American Magical History together, and Melissa and I have Charms. Am I forgetting anything that we share?"

"No, I don't think so." Jerome said.

"Why are our schedules so similar?" Calvin asked. "I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, but I do think it seems a little odd."

"Think about the class size," Melissa told him. There are only 56 of us in our year, and so at any given time there are only two different classes for first years being taught, although Creature Care and Magical Flora are taught at three different times due to their class style."

"Hmmm," Calvin mused. "That actually makes a good deal of sense."

The trio continued their way towards the mess hall, and Calvin still found it hard to shake the weird feeling he got when people stared at him. Every time it happened, the words of those older Thunderbird students from the balcony the day before got back into his head. The ones about how much pressure he was going to get, and how many people in his situation went on to become insanely successful. Calvin couldn't stop thinking about it, and quite frankly, he was stressed. He hadn't shared it with anyone yet, but he was worried he wouldn't live up to those expectations. He didn't want to end up being a fraud.

Calvin and his friends arrived at an already partially full mess hall and found a spot to eat breakfast, which, for the record was just as good as dinner had been (Calvin was seriously considering locating the kitchens and begging for the chef's secrets so he could eat this way year round). Their meal, however, was interrupted quite suddenly when a large group of owls fluttered in through an open window in the mess hall. Calvin was initially surprised, but then he remembered that owls were actually commonplace as pets in the Wizarding World. He was thrown off slightly when a beautiful spotted owl landed in front of Melissa, clutching a rolled up newspaper in its talons.

"Thank you, Athena." Melissa cooed. She took the newspaper and gave the owl a nice pet. Calvin actually thought the owl looked proud, if it was even possible for owls to look proud. "My dad promised to send me copies of the New York Ghost every day. He works for MACUSA, so he says it's important for me to stay updated on what's going on around the world even when I'm at school. Athena here is our family owl."

"Ah," remarked Jerome. "What's the paper say?"

Athena flew off, her job fulfilled.

"Well…" Melissa started slowly, "Calvin made the front page."

"What?" Jerome's eyes practically bugged out of his head and he nearly spat out his pancakes. "Is it because of his sorting? I mean, you said it was a big deal and all, but is a sorting really enough to warrant the front page? I get that I'm new here, but why is a twelve year old's sorting so important to a big newspaper?"

Melissa sighed. "It's because the magical community puts so much stock into this kind of stuff whenever it happens. My dad says a lot of the past few MACUSA presidents were chosen by multiple statues, and so now everyone thinks that it's a confirmation of greatness to come or something like that." She frowned. "But it's stupid because it places a lot of pressure and unrealistic expectations on Calvin, which is super unfair."

Calvin groaned. "MACUSA. People keep saying that. What does it stand for?"

"Magical Congress of the United States of America. It's our wizarding form of government."

Calvin paled a little. This wasn't going to work out for him. All of these expectations, all of the voices from others. He'd just have to shut out all of the noise before it got to him and made him crack. He couldn't let it get to him or he'd lose it before he even had a chance to live up to the expectations.

An older student walked over to their table, halting the conversation. He had raven dark hair and glasses, and he looked pretty similar to Melissa, almost like a sibling. "Dad wants me to keep an eye on you, even though we're in different houses. So here's your daily reminder to stay out of trouble." He eyed her. "Seriously, don't get in any trouble, because if you do, so do I for not keeping you out of it. You don't want that on your conscience. Behave."

Melissa nodded obediently. Satisfied, the boy made his way back to where he had been sitting.

Jerome tapped Calvin on his shoulder. What time is it? Don't we have class at 8:00?"

Calvin checked his watch. "Crap. We only have 15 minutes until class starts and we have no clue where the potions lab is . It could be anywhere in this stinking castle."

"Don't worry," Melissa told him. "I'm fairly certain I know where the potions class is. The schedule says it's room 3313, right? That means it's on the third floor. That's a good place to start."

The three of them made their way up to the third floor after taking a quick detour back to their common rooms to gather their school supplies. On their way up, they passed Nigel Johnson in the hallway, trailed by at least 10 other students who were following him like puppy dogs. When they passed Calvin, they broke into whispers, stealing glances at him. Nigel barely paid his followers any attention, however. His gaze was locked on Calvin, and the look on his face was a somewhat disgusted sneer. Calvin also noted a hint of jealousy flash across his features for a brief period of time, although the only reason he could think of as to why Nigel would be jealous of him was because Calvin had gotten in the paper and he hadn't. Calvin didn't know Nigel super well, but he seemed like the type of person who was used to attention if the gaggle of first years following him was any indication. It looked like Nigel wasn't happy to have some of that attention go a different way, especially the way of a First-gen. He probably didn't care that Calvin hadn't asked for any publicity. He just hoped Nigel didn't get it into his head to do anything to Calvin in retaliation. Calvin had no desire to get into anything like that. He'd been fortunate enough to be something of a fly on the wall throughout elementary school. The kind of kid you never really noticed. He'd tended to avoid trouble as a result, but now it looked like he wouldn't be so lucky.

Calvin, Jerome, and Melissa eventually found the potions room, and they did so without a minute to spare, as magical chimes sounded to signify the start of class right as they found their seats.

The room was divided into desks, and Calvin was seated in between Melissa and Jerome. Sitting on each desktop was a single cauldron.

The potions instructor, Professor Bridgewater strode to the front of the room, right next to the potions supplies cabinet.

"Hello, class. Welcome to introductory potions. I'm Professor Bridgewater, but I already met with you all yesterday so I'll spare you any introduction beyond that. I know that we're all going to be starting out at different levels, as some of you may have prior experience brewing simple calming droughts at home and some of you may have never touched cauldron in your lives. That's OK, as this class is going to be fairly independent and self led. The goal is for you all to work at your own pace later on in the year. The potion we will be starting out with today is relatively simple. I'd like all of you to open up your potions textbooks to page three, where you'll find instructions on how to brew the pepper up potion. This potion is not overly complicated, and I will not be grading you based on your performance today because I just want to get to know where you are at so I can do my best to help you in the future. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. You may begin." She sat down at her desk after that, and the students began to start making the potion.

Calvin opened his textbook to page three and immediately wished he had gotten around to reading up on potions earlier like he had with Charms and Defense.

Ingredients:

Two pinches of crushed Bicorn Horn

Mandrake Root

Three Sprigs of English Thyme

Five drops of Salamander Blood

Four Fire Seeds

Of the five ingredients, he only recognized one, and that was English Thyme. Oh, and also salamander blood. He shuddered and made a mental note to never take Sherman into the Potions lab. The rest of the ingredients were completely foreign. Mandrake root? What on earth was a mandrake? He breathed a very thankful sigh of relief when he realized that the items in the supplies cabinet were labeled. He gathered his stuff and carried it back to his work station. He looked at the instructions in the textbook, which said he needed to crush the Bicorn Horn with a mortar and pestle.

Brewing Instructions:

Part 1:

Add 1 piece Bicorn Horn to the mortar

Crush into a very fine powder using the pestle

Add 2 pinches of the crushed Bicorn Horn to your cauldron

Add the Mandrake Root to your cauldron

Heat on medium for 10 seconds

Leave to brew and return in 30 minutes

Part 2:

Add 3 sprigs of English Thyme to your cauldron

Stir 4 times, clockwise

Add 5 drops of Salamander Blood to your cauldron

Stir 2 times, anti-clockwise

Add 4 Fire Seeds to your cauldron

Let set for 1 Minute

He sighed and got up again to retrieve those items. After searching the potion supplies cabinet for a few minutes, Calvin found a fully decent looking mortar and pestle. He sat down again and was finally able to start making the potion, crushing up the Bicorn Horn and adding two pinches to the cauldron. He looked over at Jerome and saw he was already on step 6, waiting for the potion to brew for the allotted thirty minutes before he advanced to part two. Calvin noted that he looked a little bored. At least it seemed like Melissa was at about the same spot as he was. In fact, it looked like most of the class had just added crushed Bicorn Horn to their concoctions. Perhaps he wasn't as far behind as he'd originally thought.

Calvin finished brewing the potion about 45 minutes later, and while it wasn't exactly the same shade of orange as the textbook had said it should be, he was still relatively happy with himself. Jerome, on the other hand, was an absolute prodigy. He had been the first student to finish, and his potion was described as "simply magnificent" by Professor Bridgewater.

"I don't get it," Calvin said as he followed Jerome to their second class of the day, American Magical History. Melissa had already left to go to her class.

"I followed all of the potions instructions just like the book said, but my potion didn't look anything like yours."

"Did you add your fire seeds at three second intervals?"

"What?"

"In the margins next to the ingredients there's a text box that says if you add the fire seeds too quickly or too slowly the potion won't be as effective. Honestly, it's pretty similar to cooking."

"Seriously? I saw that but I didn't even read it because I thought it didn't matter. You'd think something as important as that would take up a bigger part of the page."

The boys entered the history classroom where a man older than dirt stood up at the front of the room next to a chalkboard. He appeared to be the professor, though it looked like he was getting pretty close to retiring. There was only one other person in the classroom at the time, and so, in an effort to make new friends, Calvin and Jerome sat next to him.

"Hey, I'm Calvin, and this is Jerome," Calvin gestured towards his friend and held out his hand.

The boy took Calvin's hand and shook it vigorously. "Nice to meet you! I'm Andrew! I'm in House Wampus, but you probably already knew that..." he gestured to his robes, which were indeed embroidered with the Wampus house crest. "What do you guys think of Ilvermorny?"

"You know, it's not that bad. Not that bad at all," said Jerome. "Potions is re-"

He was cut off by the sound of a boy clearing his voice. Sitting in the back of the room was Nigel Johnson, the boy who had called Calvin a Mudblood. He was surrounded by a pretty big group of students. They must've just gotten in. Calvin rolled his eyes. Great.

He gestured for Andrew to come over, raising an eyebrow at Calvin and Jerome. Andrew looked flustered. "I'm sorry, I…" he jabbed a thumb towards the back of the room sheepishly.

"Say no more, say no more," Calvin told him. "Feel free to leave." Andrew nodded and got up, heading towards Nigel and his group of friends.

"What was that about?" Jerome asked. Calvin could notice him beginning to look irritated.

"Well," Calvin said, "I'll admit that I don't know Nigel Johnson super well, but from my two interactions with him in the past two days I've gathered that he's an elitist jerk who looks down on No-majs and First-gens and likes attention. As a result, I don't think he liked me being on the front page of the New York Ghost, stealing all of that attention he likes, which is stupid. I'm not a fan of all of this pressure that's on me all of the sudden. Anyways, he probably didn't appreciate Andrew getting friendly with us."

"So? Why is Andrew doing what he wants?"

"My best guess is because he's popular. Look at all of the kids surrounding him right now. Nigel has power. Andrew knows that if he doesn't do what Nigel wants he'll probably end up being shunned like we are."

"Are we? Being shunned, I mean. I haven't noticed anything beyond what just happened."

"It's still early, but yes, we're probably being shunned. I don't know exactly how many people he's friends with, but I'd imagine it's a lot and still counting. Even the people he's not friends with are probably going to be peer pressured into shunning us."

"If he's mad at you, why am I being shunned too? What about Melissa?"

"If I had to guess, you're probably being shunned because you're a First-gen. Think about it. We're the only two First-gens in our year. This school is full of people with wizarding parentage. We're different from everybody else. That may not normally be a problem, but imagine if Nigel was using that angle to convince people. Once he gets a few people on board, it's just peer pressure from there. As for Melissa, she still may have a chance to avoid all of this."

"Are we just gonna let it happen?"

Calvin sighed. "No, probably not. I didn't want it to come to anything like this, though. I don't have a concrete plan for what to do yet, but I have a couple of solid ideas."

"Alright, alright," wheezed the American Magical History professor, clapping his hands to get the class to stop talking. "Quiet down now first years. Class is about to start."

As if on cue, the chimes rang and class began.

"I'm Professor Harper," croaked their teacher. "Welcome to American Magical History, a course you will take in your first and second years. Since this is your first day of classes here at Ilvermorny, the people in charge of the curriculum decided that it would be a good idea for you to start this class with a little bit of Ilvermorny history."

He coughed and opened a textbook on his desk, beginning to read in a raspy voice. "The school was founded in 1627 by an Irish Immigrant named Isolt Sayre and her No-maj husband named James Steward. It started out as a shack where they could homeschool their children and eventually grew into much more than that as the number of students steadily increased. Keep in mind that it was the early 1600s, and so America had not yet been colonized by Europeans to the same degree it currently is today. In fact, a large amount of Ilvermorny's student populace were from the Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes, which resulted in a lot of Native American influences in the foundations of how magic was taught back in the day." Professor Harper slammed the book shut and slouched in his chair. "For the rest of class, I'd like you to finish reading the first chapter in your textbooks and answer the discussion questions at the end of it. Turn in your answers before you leave."

Calvin opened the textbook and began reading. He hadn't gotten very far when Jerome nudged him in the side.

"Hey," he whispered. "I'll answer the first five questions if you answer the last five. Then we can share answers."

Calvin nodded, grinning. He supposed that it was still early, but so far it looked like this class was going to be a lot of busywork. If he worked with Jerome, he'd be cutting that busywork in half. He flipped about halfway through the chapter to the section about Ilvermorny in the 19th century and began to read.

Calvin and Jerome finished their work with plenty of time to spare. Calvin decided to take advantage of that free time and continue reading the charms textbook. He was at a really interesting part about how you could use the incantation lumos to determine the strength of someone's initial magical core. There had been a small section about it in the beginning of the textbook, but there it was supposed to be used as an activity for the first days of the year to help teachers understand the initial magical capacity of students. The section Calvin was reading was about a third of the way through the textbook and detailed exactly how and why this was an effective method to figure out someone's raw magical ability. He really found it all fascinating and was itching to finally do some real magic next period when they got to learn to cast the wand lighting charm and determine the strength of their cores. He was so absorbed in his book that he didn't notice class had ended until Jerome jostled him to get his attention.

"C'mon, time to go."

Calvin got up, said goodbye to Jerome, and made his way up to the fourth floor for Charms. Once he got there, he found an empty seat next to Melissa. "How was…" he trailed off. "What did you have?"

"Magical Creature Care?"

"Yeah," Calvin nodded. It was still crazy to think that there was an entire class dedicated to learning about animals like unicorns and dragons. He thought that was so cool.

"It's actually really interesting. Did you know there is a Pegasus living right here on Ilvermorny grounds? Or that they can live to be over two hundred years old? I can't believe how much I learned today. How was American Magical History for you and Jerome?"

"Pretty boring. Our teacher talked for like two minutes and then gave us a stupid assignment. You'd think learning about magical history would be fun, but there's nothing engaging about it. It's all, 'so and so did this and then this happened after'. You know, I've been meaning to ask you about moving pictures, and I was reminded to do so when I saw them in the textbook. How do they make those?"

"I'm pretty sure they dip the pictures in some potion or something like that, but I'm not positive." Melissa looked around the classroom, noting the fact that the only open seats left were the ones around them. "Calvin? Do you know why nobody's sitting by us?"

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure Nigel Johnson is trying to get our entire year to shun me."

"Why? Is he mad at you because you crashed into him after the floo?"

"Well, kind of, I guess, but I think he's not happy after I made the paper. I'm pretty sure he's worried I'll try to steal his thunder. Of course, I'm not planning to do so. That being said, you could probably avoid being shunned if you sat over there with everyone else."

"No, I'm fine. I'm not going to let a bunch of mean kids choose the friends I make."

He smiled at her. "Thanks that means a lot. Nigel's gonna have something coming, but I'm just not sure what it is yet."

They then had to stop talking, as class started shortly thereafter. Their Charms instructor was a portly man in his thirties, and he started writing on the chalkboard. Professor Prattles. "Welcome to first year Charms," he said. "I hope you've all had a nice school day so far, and with any luck you're ready to do some magic today."

Calvin was sitting on the edge of his seat. This was it, finally!

Professor Prattles broke into a grin. "I'm just messing with you guys. We won't be doing any magic today, it's a little bit too early to start on that and I want you to have a deeper understanding of charms first. Instead, what we'll be doing is going over some of the basic fundamentals of charms and then we'll learn about the wand motions for two of the simplest charms, lumos, the wand lighting charm, and its counterpart nox in preparation for actually casting the spells tomorrow."

Calvin deflated, but only a little bit. He was disappointed, sure, but they'd be doing magic tomorrow, so he supposed he could wait.

"With that being said, I think the best way to introduce charms to those who aren't familiar with it is to define it. Does anyone here know the definition of a charm?"

A handful of kids raised their hands, Calvin's included. Professor Prattles called on one sitting in the front row. "And you are…"

"Jenny. Jenny Lewis. To answer your question, the definition of a charm is a spell that alters an object without changing its essential nature. For example, if you made a teapot dance, it would be a charm, but if you changed it into a tortoise, you would be doing transfiguration."

"Very good Ms. Lewis." He nodded. "Now, this is just a general rule for what a charm is, of course, and so there are some exceptions to that rule. One thing about magic is that it's full of exceptions. There are very few concrete laws to follow, and as a result people have speculated that with enough power there are no limits to what a wizard is capable of, even Gamp's law. Of course, that's all theoretical, and so it's useless to dwell on such things that will never happen… One thing you will notice throughout this course is that oftentimes correctly casting a charm requires more than simply saying an incantation and waving your wand. Charms require lots of practice and understanding to master, and you may not get it on your first time. In fact, it requires even more practice to master a charm silently or even wandlessly. That is exactly why we are beginning work on our first charm and carrying it onto tomorrow. Open your textbooks now to the first page of section one, to the part describing how to carry out the wand lighting charm." He paused for a moment as the students retrieved their textbooks from book bags and opened them.

"The first thing you should turn your attention to is the diagram describing the wand motion required to carry out this spell. Now, one of the reasons this is the first spell you are taught is because the incantation and wand motion are so simple. As the diagram shows, your wand should move in an upside down v formation, almost like a mountain."

Calvin nodded. He'd read this already.

Professor Prattles continued. "Flip to the next page. The counterpart to lumos, which is nox, has a slightly different motion. You'll learn the reasons behind wand motions if you ever take ancient runes or arithmancy, but the wand movement is very similar to a wave as you can see in the diagram. The main purpose of nox is to cancel out the effects of lumos."

Their teacher raised his wand. "Tempus," he muttered. Numbers sprang out of his wand, stating the time. 10:45. "For the rest of class I'd like you to finish reading both pages of the textbook that we started and then spend the rest of your remaining time doing whatever you think will help you prepare for when we actually cast these two spells in class tomorrow. Remember, it's important to be familiar with a spell before casting. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Professor," chorused the class.

Calvin got to work. Once he finished the reading, he made a conscious effort to stay familiar with the spells by writing them down and drawing the wand motions. In fact, he'd felt pretty confident in his ability to cast those spells tomorrow as he made his way down to the courtyard in the middle of the castle for Magical Creature Care.

He arrived at his next class just as thunder began to rumble. Fat drops of rain began to pour, rolling off his face and making a pitter patter noise when it connected with the ground. Calvin groaned, along with the rest of the students around him. The sky had been gloomy all day, but he'd been hoping that it wouldn't be raining by the time Magical Creature Care, his only class that was outside rolled around. He hadn't been very lucky. On the bright side, the Creature Care instructor seemed prepared for the weather. She pulled out her wand and began waving it in complicated patterns, muttering something unintelligible under her breath. The spell she cast resulted in a shimmering light being emitted from her wand, which she was pointing straight up. The light went straight into the air and began to spread around until it covered the entire courtyard. The rain stopped.

Calvin made a mental note to learn that spell -no matter how complicated it was- as fast as possible. It was simply too useful to ignore.

On another note, it appeared like Nigel Johnson's plan to isolate Calvin and his friends was going well, despite how utterly stupid it was. The class was divided into two sections: Calvin, and then everybody else who stood off to the side a little. Of course, in the middle of the action was Nigel. Of course.

Their Professor, who had yet to address the class, pulled out a small silver whistle from the pocket of her robes and blew on it. The sound that followed was almost like candy, sweet as it made its way to Calvin's ears. He found himself feeling uncontrollably giddy, and he was filled with a happy warmth that echoed throughout his entire body. He smiled contentedly.

Then the whistle stopped blowing, and Calvin was harshly thrown back into normality. Calvin found himself a little bit dazed, and it took him a second to be fully focused. What was that whistle?

"I'm Professor Stauber," their instructor began, tucking the whistle back into her pocket. "Welcome to your first Magical Creature Care class. I have no doubt you've heard from your peers already, but today's subject is the Pegasus who lives on Ilvermorny grounds, Cassiopeia. I blew the whistle to call her over, so she should be over quickly, but you never know with a Pegasus. They're stubborn creatures who operate on their own schedule."

At that very moment, as if on cue, a winged horse flew over the students standing in the courtyard, making a landing in the clearing. The timing couldn't have been better if it was planned, and a small part of Calvin suspected it was. Regardless of whether the Pegasus's entrance was directed ahead of time or not, it was difficult to not be an awe of what a magnificent and beautiful creature Cassiopeia truly was. She was slightly larger than most horses, with black as midnight feathers and fur as well as a pair of long, powerful wings and slender legs. She was still wet from the rain and so she shook herself dry. The first years stood in silent wonder for a moment as Professor Stauber strode over to the Pegasus, carrot in hand. The flying horse in question took the treat without hesitation, and began chomping away happily.

Their instructor beckoned them over. "She's very gentle, you can pet her..."

One by one, and very hesitantly, the first years walked over to Cassiopeia.

"She's the only one of her kind in North America," Professor Stauber started once everyone got closer. "Most of the time, Pegasi live in the Mediterranean regions, such as Greece and Italy and even the north coast of Africa. Sometimes they show up in other parts of Europe or Asia, but when that happens, it's pretty rare. It was unheard of for a Pegasus to be found in this region of the world before it finally happened in the thirties. The circumstances around her arrival were rather mysterious, however. One day, she showed up out of the blue on Mount Greylock, and none of the Pegasus sanctuaries had reported any missing Pegasi for the previous one hundred and fifty years. There are no records of any Pegasi living in the wild since the 1400s, as a No-maj would almost surely spot it right away. Our best guess is that she's the offspring of an escaped pair from centuries ago that has been in hiding for all this time."

She continued. "By my best estimate, Cassiopeia is nearly one hundred years old, which is middle age for a Pegasus. This could be a couple years off, give or take, of course."

Professor Stauber continued to share information about Pegasi, and it felt like this was the moment when Calvin decided he liked Ilvermorny a lot. Sure, classes like American Magical History were boring, but sitting through an hour of that was worth it if he got to do stuff like this every day. He hadn't even been at school for a whole day and he was already wondering what details he would have to cut out of the weekly letter to his father he'd promised to write right before he left to go to the bus stop. He checked his watch. There were about thirty seconds left in class and then came his lunch break. He couldn't wait.

On his way back, Calvin noticed a translucent silhouette racing around the corridor in a circle ahead of him, looking as distressed as a silhouette could look. Cautiously, Calvin started towards it. Once he got closer, the thing noticed him and gave a wail of despair.

"Oh, how I wish to be off this plane! Little boy, do you think you could help me leave the living realm?"

"Umm, what?"

"Ah. A first gen. Well, that makes things a little bit harder, I suppose. I'm a poltergeist, you see. I've been one for centuries. When my kind fulfills our purpose on the mortal plane, we leave and cease to exist. We call it the 'exit'. It would be a great help if you would let me exit this world."

"Why do you need my help? Why can't you get a teacher or the headmaster's help if you want to leave? They're probably more qualified for something like this than I am."

"Ah. Well, you see… technically my spirit is bound to this castle as a direct result of a little bit of trouble I got in when I was alive, and so I'm technically bound to the school's will for the next two hundred years. Of course, none of the staff currently knows I exist because I've done my best to hide for them. They wouldn't even notice I was gone."

Calvin frowned. "And why should I let you free if you're bound to the school because you got in trouble?"

"Because this punishment is really unfair!" He whined. Then, his eyes lit up, as if he had just gotten a great idea. "And…" he began, "I'll teach you how to use the secret passages littered throughout the castle. Trust me, these are a lot more useful than No-maj secret passages. I remember back in my living days there were all sorts of rumors that the secret passages were where the founders hid their most valuable artifacts after they died. Who knows what kind of things are hiding in there?"

Calvin's eyes widened. "I'm listening."

"Uh uh uh. You need to fulfill your end of the bargain first."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"In the headmaster's office, there's an urn sitting on his desk. It's sat on the desk of every headmaster for the past two centuries. It's this awful red and green plaid color, so you won't be able to miss it. I want you to bring the urn to me. It's my tether to the mortal realm. Once I've got it, I'll tell you how to use the secret passages."

"The headmaster's office? Are you out of your mind? I could probably get expelled if I got caught taking something from there. How am I supposed to steal something from the headmaster?"

"That's up to you to figure out. Just remember that if you don't get it, the secret passages stay secret. Such a shame, too. I doubt they've been used in centuries. All of the things you'd miss out on."

"Alright, alright, I get it! I'll find a way to get your stupid urn. I don't know how, though."

Melissa and Jerome were already eating by the time he got to the mess hall. Calvin found his way over to their table and took a seat.

"So? What'd you think of Magical Creature Care?" Melissa asked him once he'd sat down.

"It's pretty cool," Calvin admitted. "It's still crazy to think that there's all this stuff I've been missing my whole life. Imagine if I hadn't been admitted to Ilvermorny. I would've gone my whole life without even knowing what magic was. I would've had to go to high school and then to college just to get a boring desk job."

"Not necessarily," said Melissa. "There are plenty of magical schools around America, so you probably would've been admitted to one of them. You likely wouldn't have gotten as good of an education though. Ilvermorny is the largest magical school in North America and is widely recognized as the best out of all of them. In fact, it's a huge privilege for all of us to get to go here. Wizarding families have to pay a ton of money for students to be admitted but First-gens are always given an academic scholarship. That's how you guys got all of your school supplies without paying a single Dragot."

Calvin sat silently for a moment, thinking. "I guess we were pretty lucky to come here." He checked his watch. "What? We have another class in ten minutes? I just sat down!"

"You did show up to lunch a little bit later than everyone else. What took you so long?"

"I got held up in the hallway," Calvin grumbled. He was gathering a handful of food quickly. Hopefully it would be enough to hold him over until dinner.

He exited the mess hall with his friends. They all had Transfiguration next, but if his other classes had been any indication, they wouldn't be doing any actual magic. At least, not today.

It turned out his assumptions were correct; the first thing Calvin noticed as he walked into the classroom was the writing on the chalkboard:

Day one: Magical Theory

Calvin certainly liked Ilvermorny, but at this point he was just wishing for it to be tomorrow already. He took a seat with Melissa and Jerome, once again noticing the abundance of people around Nigel and the obvious lack of students near him and his friends. It was only his first full day at Ilvermorny and he already had two important things to do. Get the stupid urn for that ghost, and find a way to escape the exile from the rest of the year that he was currently in.

Their transfiguration teacher was an old, stern looking woman. She waited for the chime to sound before she addressed the class.

"Welcome to Transfiguration. My name is Professor Goodwin. I'm sure you've already heard about our first year policy at Ilvermorny. If you haven't, you should know that first year classes don't practice magic on the first day of school. As a result, today we will be going over the theory behind Transfiguration. Tomorrow, we will be preparing to practice basic Transfiguration, and on Thursday and Friday we will be turning matchsticks into needles. Any questions about what we will be doing for the rest of the week?"

The class stayed silent.

"Ok, then. To begin, the first thing you should know about transfiguration is that it's the discipline of magic that focuses on changing the form of an object or organism through use of spells. It is rarely permanent, and it requires more magic and experience to transfigure an object for an extended period of time. For the First-gen's among you, transfiguration is easily the most scientific of all of the branches of magic you will be studying, and it deals with things on the molecular level. Transfiguration, while incredibly useful and powerful, is not limitless. There is a magical rule known as the five principal exceptions to Gamp's law of elemental transfiguration. It states Food, Money, Knowledge, Love, and Soul cannot be conjured from thin air or transfigured out of nothing. That isn't to say that you couldn't transfigure something like food into another object. You just can't transfigure anything with one of those things as the end result."

Melissa raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"Why not? I mean, what's preventing anyone from transfiguring a piece of wood into a loaf of bread?"

"I would have expected you of all people to understand this, Miss Donahue, what with your father's position at MACUSA."

Melissa blushed.

"That being said, you did ask an excellent question, young lady. Does anybody here know the answer to Melissa's question?"

Nobody in the class moved. Even Calvin was stumped. He knew it made sense, of course. Being able to make food or money out of nothing would be incredibly illogical. If wizards could conjure something like food, what was preventing them from solving world hunger? He just didn't know what specifically was making it so a scenario like that was impossible.

"There is a different answer for each of the exceptions. Food is an exception because while you can pull it out of thin air or transfigure it from something else, the object you make with magic will have no nutritional value and as such loses its main purpose. As a result, it is not real food. Money is an exception because it disappears very quickly after being conjured or transfigured. Knowledge is a little bit trickier. You cannot magically learn anything or obtain information without any effort. Love is the fourth exception, and while there are ways to create infatuation using items like Love Potions, it is not true love. The final exception is soul. Certain spells, such as Avis, can conjure animals from nothingness, although those animals don't have individual souls and as a result can't think on their own…"

"Hey," Calvin nudged Melissa, whispering. "What's your dad's job at MACUSA?"

"Oh, he's the head of the Department of Magical Experimentation. He does a ton of work on stuff like Gamp's Law, which is why I think Professor Goodwin expected me to know more about it.

"Ah."

Calvin returned his attention to their professor, who was currently lecturing about why it was easier to transfigure one thing into another similar object.

"The reason this happens is because the transfigured object has to undergo less of a transformation. A bigger difference severely changes the difficulty of the magic you attempt, which is why we will begin our practice in this class with things of similar shape and size."

The first years spent the rest of the class learning more and more about the subject, and by the time the class ended, Calvin was fatigued. Transfiguration was complicated.

He didn't have any time to dwell on it, though. His next class was in the greenhouse, on the other side of the stinkin castle. He'd be lucky if he made it on time. Gathering his things, Calvin speedwalked out of the classroom and began weaving around other students in the corridors. A quick glance at his watch let him know that he only had two more minutes left to get to the greenhouse on time. Times like this would go way smoother if he knew how to use the secret passages. Who knew what kinds of shortcuts they'd provide? Of course, the thing Calvin was more interested in was the magical artifacts that belonged to the founders.

How am I supposed to get that urn?

Calvin knew it wouldn't be easy. At the moment, he had no idea what he was going to do. He supposed his best bet was to hit the library at some point in time and see if there was some sort of magic that would allow him to enter the office undetected. The main goal was to avoid getting caught. Calvin had no doubt that if he got in trouble for trespassing the consequences would be severe. He thought for a moment. Of course! All he had to do was get in trouble! It was clear that getting sent to the headmaster's office for bad behavior was the best route he could take. After that it would be as simple as swiping the urn and leaving without him noticing. Of course, he'd still probably have to do some research to figure out how to do that without being caught, but there had to be a way.

He didn't have anymore time to dwell on it, though, as he had just reached the greenhouse. He'd have to think about it more at a later time.

Calvin was initially quite thrown off when he stepped into the Magical Flora classroom. For one thing, it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. That wasn't anything he wasn't used to, though. The bus he'd taken to Ilvermorny had been the exact same way. What did surprise him, however, was the sheer amount of plants in the greenhouse, none of which he recognized, and all of which were so thick that he could hardly see three feet ahead. That and the humidity made it seem almost like walking into a rainforest. Calvin found his way to the middle of the room and sat at an empty table located in the center.

The professor noticed Calvin walk in right before the chimes and brightened "Alright then, it looks like we have all but two people now. I'm sure they'll find their way here pretty soon, but that shouldn't let that delay us from starting, should it? I'm Professor Beasley, and I'll be your Magical Flora instructor here at Ilvermorny. Now, I understand that the day is nearly over and you all just want it to end, but trust me, you may find out that this is your favorite subject! Why, I remember back when I was a first year at Ilvermorny, not too long ago-"

He was cut off by two girls who rustled through the greenhouse, stumbling.

"There you two are! I hope you can both show up on time now that you know where the greenhouse is, right?

The girls nodded.

"Alright, then. You two may find a seat."

The newcomers sat down at Calvin's table.

"You guys might want to move. There's still some empty seats on the other side of the room."

"No, it's fine," said the first girl, a redhead with the Horned Serpent insignia stitched on her robed. "Nigel doesn't like us either."

"Oh?" Calvin said, "How'd that happen? I'm Calvin, by the way. Calvin Edgley. House Thunderbird" He shook hands with both of them. An enemy of my enemy is my friend, or however that saying went.

"Nice to meet you, Calvin. I'm Rachel. To answer your question, we were sitting with the rest of the year at lunch when Katie over here," she jerked her thumb at her friend. "Decided to call Nigel a moronic troll. And then punch him afterwards. So then she got shunned just like you did, and I wasn't gonna ditch her, so I went with."

Katie huffed. "I stand by my decision."

"What did Nigel do to get you to do that?"

"He said the m-word. And I may not be First-gen, but my dad was a No-maj, and so I wasn't just gonna let him say it and get away with it."

"Fair enough," Calvin said.

Rachel spoke up. "How about you? What did you do to make Nigel shun you? He didn't really tell us why we couldn't talk to you, just that if we did he'd make things hard on us."

"Well, he might be mad because people kept talking about my sorting from last night. Personally, at this point I think he's just looking for an excuse to put a first gen in his place. I get the impression he doesn't like people like me. What really sucks is that he's already got everybody on his side. I mean, it's only the first day and the entire year is under Nigel's finger."

The three of them talked a little more and realized that they also shared Defense and Potions, although Calvin hadn't noticed them in the latter. After that, Calvin made an effort to try to pay attention to Professor Beasley, which was harder than he expected. Magical Flora was incredibly boring, and it didn't help that topics like the potency of Mandrakes for de-petrification went right over his head. It seemed like the class had been going on for ages and it left him antsy for Defense Against the Dark Arts by the time it was over. Defense was the by far the class he'd been the most excited for, probably because the thought of getting into magical duels sounded even cooler than the lightsaber battles from the movies he'd watched growing up. As a result, he'd readily absorbed as much knowledge about the subject as possible, reading the entire textbook cover to cover only a week after he learned he was a wizard.

This was why he was struggling to contain his excitement when he entered the DADA classroom with his two new friends, Katie and Rachel. Melissa and Jerome already had seats, and the two pairs introduced themselves once everyone sat down. Their Professor was already at the front of the room, twirling her wand casually. She was young; much younger than any of the other Professors. She had to be only a couple of years out of school. When the chimes sounded she stood up, speaking in a crisp British accent. "Hello, class. Today is day one for the first of seven years of Defense Against the Dark Arts that you will take at Ilvermorny. I'm Professor Greengrass and this is my first year teaching this course. As expected, there will be some things that are new to me, such as the rules surrounding the first day of school and first years casting spells. Personally, I believe it's a pointless rule, but we will be following it nevertheless."

She began to write on the chalkboard. "The main goal today is to go over dark magic and then begin to prepare for tomorrow, when you will practice casting the two spells you will cast the most in this class: the disarming and shield charms. I understand that this is very similar to what you did in some of your other classes, and that is by design. The curriculum mandates that things must be taught in this specific order to start out the year." She paused for a moment. "To begin, Dark Magic is any kind of magic cast with the intent to harm. There is no such thing as a specific dark spell, as the only thing that determines what is dark and what isn't is how it is used. For example, the Killing Curse can be used for something as mundane as weeding a garden, while the levitating charm could, if used correctly, kill someone. The purpose of this course is to teach you to defend yourself from the dangers that may show up in your lives. This is important, as only a few years ago a war was fought in Britain that threatened to spill over into North America. Cases like that are when this class becomes useful. Later on in your education you will start to learn some more powerful spells. The important thing to note is that you are to never, ever, use any of those spells on another person other than in self defense or a duel. Am I clear?"

The class all nodded.

"Good. Now onto the next part. Open your textbooks to page seven. I want you to read as much about the disarming and shield charms and how to cast them as possible. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow."

Calvin figured another read through couldn't hurt, and so he scanned the textbook and memorised the incantations and wand motions.

The rest of the class followed quickly after that, and it ended rather abruptly. Calvin found himself wishing the day was over so he could just get to doing real magic, but he wasn't that lucky. He started to gather up his materials.

"Hey, Calvin! Wanna play exploding snap?"

Calvin looked over towards the door. Rachel, Katie, Jerome and Melissa were all standing there.

"Umm, I've never played it before."

"That won't be a problem. Don't worry."

"You sure?"

"One hundred percent. Jerome doesn't know how either, so we can teach both of you how to play."

"Ok, that sounds great! I'm in."

Calvin really liked it here at Ilvermorny. He couldn't have chosen a better place to spend the next seven years of his life if he tried...

* * *

Location: Unspeakable North American headquarters, somewhere in upstate New York.

Date: September 2nd, 2002 (one day ago)

Time: Unknown precisely, close to midnight

* * *

Unspeakables 17-C and 84-W stood in front of the large, ornate doors that lead to the head Unspeakable's office. Unspeakable 1-M was a figure shrouded in mystery, and not much was known about them aside from their general age, which was somewhere in the forties. It was customary for all unspeakables to wear masks, but the head Unspeakables generally kicked it up a notch with layer upon layer of glamour and vocal distortion charms that made it pretty much impossible to discern anything important about them. In fact, only about three people in a given moment actually knew their identity. It was needless to say that secrecy was important to the Unspeakables. It was why each and every one of them was assigned a number and letter sequence to be addressed as while in uniform. After all, each of them had jobs and lives outside of the organization and many were prominent and high up members of society. The unspeakable name helped many separate their two "identities".

Unspeakable 84-W tapped his foot impatiently, folding his arms. "This is degrading," he muttered. "We have potentially the most important information in the history of this organization and yet we've been waiting for an hour for a chance to talk to the director,"

17-C examined the doors, poking a small dial with one finger curiously. "What does this do?"

84-W sighed. "It's supposed to tell us when we can come in. When the dial's on red, we aren't allowed in. But when it's green the head can take an audience," he pointed up to a small glass sphere above the door frame. "That thing is an eye," he said bitterly. "If that bastard's in their office, then they've been able to see us the entire time,"

17-C looked at him quizzically. "Have you ever been here before?"

"Once," 84-W told her. "I never thought I'd come back. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. That reminds me, why don't you take the lead when we get in there?"

17-C didn't think she was a socially tactful person, but she could sense a sore subject when it showed up. 84-W went back to tapping his foot impatiently.

17-C nearly jumped out of her own skin when the small dial on the door gave a sharp buzzing noise. By the time she recovered from her shock the massive doors were sliding open to reveal what she presumed was the head unspeakable (she figured the lack of any discernible features was a decent indicator) sitting in an armchair. In front of Unspeakable 1-M was an old, rickety desk with plenty of parchment and quills for about ten people. Behind them was stacks upon stacks of file cabinets towering up to the ceiling. Needless to say, it was not exactly the scene she'd been picturing as the head unspeakable's office.

She looked over to her partner. He gestured for her to walk in ahead of him, almost as if to say "ladies first". It made her roll her eyes, but she entered Unspeakable 1-M's office anyways. 84-W was behind her by quite a distance. What had gone wrong the first time he was here?

It was only when 17-C entered the office that she noticed the presence of another. Standing a little bit to the right was Edison Quick, the only unspeakable addressed by their actual name. He was the public spokesman for the organization, and everybody knew who he was. The figurehead for the unspeakables. He was the guy who released information and gave speeches on behalf of the organization. 17-C oftentimes thought that the vast majority of the public viewed him as the leader of the unspeakables. At the very least, his presence as a public figure likely kept the wizarding population -particularly the bigwigs at MACUSA- from being afraid of a strange shadow organization with questionable motives that had been around before even the No-Maj colonists arrived.

He may not have been the guy in charge, but Edison Quick was still fairly influential and wielded a great deal of power throughout the organization. He was a man of charisma, and as a result was in charge of the recruitment of impressive and high profile youths. In fact, he had been the one to recruit 17-C to the cause. It was his charisma, as well as his general knowledge and experience that lead to him being one of unspeakable 1-M's chief advisors. So it was no surprise to see him here right now.

"I was told you two had important information," 1-M said from their desk in a voice that sounded synthesized and artificial. It was unnerving. "So important that I had to hear it right now, in the middle of the night,"

"That's right, your, um…" 17-C struggled to find the correct title.

"Just call me unspeakable. No need for fancy titles…"

"Well… unspeakable. My partner and I work in the emergency prediction branch. As you can probably imagine, we don't really get busy on most occasions. It's been a long time since a disaster has showed up that warrants a light on the alert hub going off. But well, tonight not just one light went off, but two. And they were obviously related, though..."

1-M shot upright in their chair. "The lights. Which ones?"

17-C thought for a moment. "I can't remember the precise combination," she looked at 84-W expectantly.

"It was the third one in the Ilvermorny section and the eighth one in the Prophecies section. The Ilvermorny one was red and making noise. The prophecies one was blue and silent," her partner answered, talking for the first time since he'd entered the room.

"Shit." Was all the head unspeakable could manage. "I didn't think it would ever happen. I thought that it was impossible. And there's a prophecy attached? We could be fucked. Just absolutely fucked. Merlin..." they moaned.

"You know what it means?" 17-C asked incredulously. "I needed the book to know what it was..."

"Like most new recruits, I spent time in the emergency prediction branch. I memorized that book cover to cover…"

"Can somebody explain what the alert hub combination means to those who didn't spend time in the emergency prediction branch?" Edison Quick asked impatiently.

17-C turned her attention to him. "The Ilvermorny light indicates that a… sorting anomaly has occurred."

"Today was sorting day for them, wasn't it? I have a first year nephew who goes there…" Edison Quick drifted off before refocusing. "You said a sorting anomaly. Did a kid get chosen by two statues?"

"More than that," 17-C said. "Four. And it's never happened in the history of Ilvermorny. Whoever this happened to would be in the history books for that alone…"

"Lucky kid," Quick quipped.

"But that's not all. The other light, in the prophecies section, implicates the existence of a major prophecy surrounding a wizard or witch chosen by all four sorting statues. A single light can't tell us an entire prophecy, but what it does tell us is that this prophecy could potentially be world ending. Which means that this kid will either be very good for the fate of the world or very bad…"

"Shit."

"Exactly."

"So what do we do?" Quick asked. "There hasn't been an American prophecy in decades."

Unspeakable 1-M stood up. "First off, knowledge of the existence of this prophecy does not leave this room. Second off, we need to find out who this sorting was about. It happened hours ago, so our informant at Ilvermorny has probably made a report about it." 1-M raised their wand and waved it silently. A file cabinet near the ceiling opened and a Manila file flew out of it and into the head unspeakable's outstretched hands. 1-M read the file for a moment before finally speaking. "The sorting anomaly involved a First-Gen boy named Calvin Edgley, according to our informant. Knowing his identity is crucial. We have access to the prophecy in the department of prophecies but cannot know what it is about without a subject of it present."

"Would it be wise to kidnap a first year so we can hear a prophecy?" Edison asked.

"No," Unspeakable 1-M stated simply. "We simply have to find the right time to pull him aside and open it. I imagine that will involve explaining some things to him, so I doubt it will be easy, but we are not madmen. We would never kidnap a child. At the very least we have the ability to be more tactful and intelligent than the Brits. It would be wise to ask our Ilvermorny informant to stay close to theFirst-Gen and keep an eye on him as well…"

"If only there was a way of knowing whether this First-Gen is going to destroy the world or save it," 17-C chimed in.

1-M shook their head. "There is no way of knowing beyond opening the prophecy with the boy present."

"Is it safe in the department of prophecies?" Edison asked.

"I can't see why it wouldn't be safe in our own walls. But perhaps it would be a good idea to have people to keep an eye on it…" they trailed off. "You two," the head unspeakable gestured towards 17-C and 84-M. "Are promoted to the department of prophecies effective immediately. You may spend tomorrow getting settled but I expect you locate that prophecy as soon as possible and keep an eye on it. It would be wise to be patient, but with any luck we'll be able to find out what the prophecy is before the summer. Then we can make a decision on what to do about the First-Gen,"

17-C nodded. She nudged 84-M to do the same, but for some reason he wouldn't. It was almost as if he seemed nervous about something. She didn't know why, but realized why when the 1-M spoke next.

"I'll be needing your names in order to properly promote you, however…"

"17-C," said the young unspeakable.

"84-W," her partner said after a silent pause that seemed to include an internal struggle.

Unspeakable 1-M's face may have been glamoured and charmed beyond recognition, but 17-C could've sworn she saw a look of shock flash across what was supposed to be indiscernible features. It was a different look from what was currently on Edison Quick's face. Rage. Anger. Huh? What had 84-W done? The entire atmosphere of the room had been altered as soon as he had uttered his name.

"So you were the unspeakable responsible for the failure that was the Pukwudgie project, huh?" Quick sneered.

"It wasn't a failure," 84-W said defensively. "Five of the children survived!"

"And they were returned to their families, just as you intended, right? But how long did they live after they were returned? Do we have any way of knowing if they are still alive? And what about the other 95 infants? The ones who died!"

84-W hung his head in shame.

Edison Quick wasn't done, though. "And why did they die? So you could give a few babies abilities! Abilities that could already be replicated by wandwork!"

"Please calm yourself," unspeakable 1-M told Quick. "Unspeakable 84-M paid for that mistake. Project Pukwudgie was years ago. We have bigger things to worry about than that failure. The boy and the prophecy are infinitely more important to us at the moment."

1-M looked to the two newest members of the department of prophecies. "The two of you may leave,"

The doors opened and then shut after they left. 17-C looked at 84-M as they exited the area. "What is Project Pukwudgie?"

"You… you don't want to know."

17-C decided to drop it.

* * *

AN: And the second chapter is finished! As usual, be sure to review and follow. I'd really appreciate the feedback. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3: Magic, Finally!

**The Ilvermorny files**

**Book one**

**Chapter 3: Magic, Finally!**

**September 4th, 2002**

The next day began in a manner that Calvin hadn't expected. He found himself getting violently shaken awake by Jerome, who looked worried.

"Get up!" He yelled. "We gotta get outta here! Fire!"

Calvin was dazed but still lucid enough to register what Jerome had told him. It probably helped out that he could smell the smoke and see the flames burning around him. Quickly as possible, he picked up his possessions and Sherman's cage and followed Jerome out of the first year dorms to the common room.

Students stood around, most of them still in pyjamas. Professor Prattles paced in front of them frantically. He ran his hands through his hair.

"Is that everyone?" He asked Jerome.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure…"

Professor Prattles rushed up the stairs, wand in hand. Calvin decided to put his stuff down. "How did this happen?"

Jerome shrugged. "I wish I knew. I smelled smoke and tried to get everyone outta there. The fire got kinda big, though. I think it destroyed a bed or two."

"Jeez, that's… a little bit scary. We're lucky nobody got hurt. Who got Professor Prattles?"

"I told the first person I woke up to get help." He shook his head. I'm honestly surprised that I had the awareness to do something. I'm normally really groggy at first when I wake up. What time is it even?" He gestured to Calvin's watch.

He glanced at it. It had been really advantageous to have a watch with him, especially because he wouldn't learn how to cast _Tempus _until around spring break. "Four-thirty," he informed Jerome. The sky was still dark outside. It wasn't even dawn yet.

"Great. Just great. I won't be able to go back to bed after this."

"Yeah, that seriously sucks. I woke up early yesterday, too. This is the second day in a row for me." Out of the corner of his eye, Calvin spied the rest of their first year dorm mates talking in a separate group, far away from him and Jerome. He suppressed an annoyed sigh. He'd honestly forgotten about Nigel Johnson and his decision to do whatever he could to make life at Ilvermorny difficult for him in all of the confusion. He still knew he should do something about it, but He'd managed to make friends despite everything, so it wasn't a super high priority.

Professor Prattles exited the stairwell at that moment, a stoic frown on his face. "Well, I have good news for you students. I managed to neutralize the fire, although you won't be able to access your dorms until the end of the day."

"Why's that?" One of the boys asked.

"The fire was not a standard one caused by something like accidental magic or a torch catching on to fabric. It was curse magic, and it was specifically designed to destroy you and the entire dormitory. You are all incredibly lucky that Jerome noticed it in time and also that it wasn't something particularly lethal like Feindfyre or you would almost certainly be dead. We can't let you back in there until we fully investigate and assess the damage, so you'll need to sit tight."

"Curse fire? That sounds dangerous. Who did it?" Calvin asked.

"We aren't entirely sure yet, but I'm about to get the headmaster to see if he has any method to trace a magical signature." At that, he got up and headed towards the fireplace in the middle of the common room. "Where on earth is that floo powder?" Their charms professor muttered, rifling through his robes pockets. He eventually located a small pouch and shook some floo powder into his palm. He murmured something and threw the powder into the fireplace, sticking his head in once the flames turned emerald. It appeared he was having a discussion with someone through the fireplace. Using floo powder. Weird, but not surprising.

"Gee, Jerome, we sure are lucky that you saved our lives. We'd be toast if you hadn't been smart enough to wake everyone up and get help," said Calvin, just loud enough for the other boys to hear. Maybe Jerome saving their lives would get them all to stop the shun. Or maybe not.

Jerome blushed. "It wasn't really all that much. We're all lucky to be alive."

Calvin gave him a good natured pat on the back. His voice got a bit quieter. "Seriously," he made eye contact with Jerome. "Thanks. The last thing I want is to be burnt to a crisp. Especially right after discovering magic."

Jerome laughed. "Yeah, that would be pretty crappy."

They looked over to the fireplace. Professor Prattles had pulled his head out and was talking in hushed, frantic tones with the man who had introduced himself the first night as Mr. Sagan, the Headmaster. There were a lot of hands flailing wildly and they both looked panicked. Mr. Sagan noticed students watching their exchange and put a warm smile on his face. "Everything is under control, trust me. You students sit tight for a moment, Professor Prattles and I have to investigate briefly."

The first year Thunderbird boys floated around aimlessly for a little while after the teachers left, none of them daring to say a word. It had been jarring to see two authority figures look so alarmed and panicked. Calvin clutched his wand tightly. He didn't feel safe, and he hadn't actually performed magic yet, but holding on to the 15 and ¾ inches ash and yeti fur core wand made him feel a little bit safer.

"It looks like we're gonna be down here a while."

Calvin looked at Jerome. "Yeah, I guess so." He pulled out a deck of cards from his pockets. "Exploding snap? Melissa gave me a deck because she had an extra one. She said I kinda needed practice."

Jerome eyed the deck. "Yeah, we were pretty awful yesterday. I'll play. It's not like we've got anything better to do. With any luck this will give us a chance to improve so we don't get spanked by everyone else."

Calvin grinned. He walked over to a pair of chairs and a table, shuffling the cards in his hand cautiously. He'd seen what happened when these things blew up on accident. "Get ready to lose."

"That's bold, Calvin. Very bold. If anybody should be preparing to lose it should be you."

"Alright, alright. I'll just shut up and let my skill do the talking."

Their discussion was interrupted by Mr. Sagan clearing his throat. "I regret to inform you first years that your dormitories will be off limits for the rest of the day. The damage is rather severe, and so it may take a while to fully repair. You will need to carry around your possessions for the time being," he sighed. "I am unable to detect a magical signature from the damage, which is worrying but not entirely unexpected. It is likely that someone is attempting to hide any trace of their involvement. This situation is under control." He strode off towards the common room exit after that, Professor Prattles behind him. Their charms instructor paused before he went through the doorway. "Behave yourselves until you head down to breakfast, understand?"

They all nodded obediently.

"Good." He shut the door behind him as he left.

"Jeez," Calvin said. "I'm worried. You'd think that the headmaster would be able to do more about this. From what it sounds like somebody could've been making an attempt on our lives. I mean, whoever started that curse fire was clearly trying to hide that they did it. And it probably would have killed us if not for you. Why are they leaving a bunch of first years who don't even know magic alone right now? Right after what just happened? It doesn't seem smart." He looked at his hand, placing two bowtruckles and a cyclops, smiling smugly. Jerome scowled.

"That's a good point," Jerome said, brows furrowed in concentration as he looked at his cards. "But to be fair, there are two Student Assistants in House Thunderbird, right? They said when we first got here to go to them if there was any trouble or anything like that. You'd think they'd at least have a teacher watching us until breakfast though." He placed a Manticore card.

Calvin stared at the card. The manticore picture looked smug, which probably meant Jerome had a good hand. Of course, you could never really trust Exploding Snap cards. They were always motivated to get you to screw up so they could blow up in your face, which was more than a little annoying. "Yeah, we should probably have a teacher watching us. I'd feel safer. I mean, nobody even knows who did this. It could be anybody, and they could be anywhere right now!" He placed a Yeti card triumphantly and followed it up with a Boggart. Jerome had only a second to give an exasperated groan before…

Bang!

Smoke filled the immediate area. Jerome's face was covered in soot. He gave a cough, running his hand through his lightly singed hair, checking to make sure it hadn't caught fire.

He gave Calvin a determined look. "Don't think I won't get back at you for this!" He shook his fist in mock rage.

Calvin laughed. "I'd like to see you try…"

* * *

Calvin and Jerome were still playing Exploding Snap by the time Melissa made her way down to the common room.

"You guys have been playing for a while…" she noted, looking back and forth between Calvin and Jerome's equally singed faces.

"We got an early start," Calvin told her, gathering his suitcase and Sherman's cage.

"How come?"

"There was a fire in our dormitory."

She looked surprised. "How'd that happen?"

"Well, Professor Prattles and the headmaster think it was a curse fire, but they don't know who caused it."

"Curse fire? So it was intentional? Not an accident?"

"No, probably not. We're lucky that Jerome noticed it so early though, because he managed to get everybody out of there and get help."

"You got everybody out of there, Jerome?"

"Well, um, yeah. But it wasn't really that big of a deal." He shrugged. "I don't want it to be a whole thing."

They found their seats for breakfast, although this time they found a table with two extra people. Katie and Rachel had already gotten to the mess hall before them and were eating their breakfast at the moment. The five of them had all become fast friends over their game of Exploding Snap the day before.

"Morning," the three of them sat down and made small talk, with Calvin filling Katie and Rachel in on the fire.

"Jeez, that's alarming," Katie said, picking at her food.

"Not hungry?" Melissa asked.

"I guess not. It's just… scary to think that someone could get into the school to try to kill us. You kind of lose your appetite after that."

"Besides," Rachel chimed in. "Ilvermorny is supposed to be one of the most secure places in the country after MACUSA headquarters. This kind of stuff just shouldn't even be happening."

"I agree that it's scary," began Jerome, "But don't let that stop you from eating all of this delicious food!"

Katie nodded a bit but still looked unsettled.

Calvin pointed to the open window. "Hey, there's your owl, Melissa." Indeed, the majestic bird was on its way towards their table.

Melissa untied the newspaper attached to its leg. "Thank you, Athena. Good girl."

"Anything interesting?" Rachel asked, leaning over as Melissa opened the paper.

"Not really," she admitted. "Unless you like Quodpot…"

"Are you kidding? I've been playing since I was seven! Who won the championships last night?"

"Wichita beat Pueblo. And it wasn't even close, either."

"Well, I always thought Pueblo was a long shot to win the whole thing. Maxey's great, don't get me wrong, but the team around her is never good enough and she can only do so much."

"Wichita just has the better roster."

"I agree. Trading for Hoover last summer really made them a title contender."

"Are you guys excited for potions today?" Jerome asked Calvin and Katie, realizing that the three of them were all content to stay quiet on the subject of Quodpot.

"Not really," grumbled Calvin. "I don't understand how you're so good at it. You didn't even read the textbook ahead or anything like that."

"It's called talent. Some of us don't feel the need to read ahead," Jerome huffed jokingly.

"Wait, who read ahead?" Katie asked.

"I did," said Calvin.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it was really only for Charms and Defense. I just didn't want to fall behind because I was worried all of you guys who grew up knowing about magic would have an advantage."

"An advantage? Not really, but I wish I had one. Maybe some of the well off kids got some basic tutoring, but I wouldn't worry about being left behind. My mom and her brother were first-gens and they turned out fine. She has her own business and My uncle's the headmaster."

"Your uncle's the headmaster?"

"Yeah, but my mom hasn't talked to him in a while. They used to run the business together and got into an argument about something. I hadn't actually seen him since I was like, six. Then he took the job here three years ago."

"What kind of business is it?"

"Divination. She's a seer, so she reads tea leaves and analyzes dreams. Supposedly she's distantly related to the woman who came up with the prophecy about the dark lord in Britain in the eighties, so she sometimes brings that up to customers to encourage them to get fortunes read. She's pretty well known in the field."

"Wait, there are prophecies? Like, actual prophecies in the wizarding world? And dark lords?" Jerome seemed a little bit surprised. "That sounds like something out of a fantasy novel."

Calvin rolled his eyes. "Please, Jerome. Pretty much everything here is straight out of a fantasy novel. I wouldn't be surprised if hobbits existed."

"What are hobbits?" Katie asked.

"They're from some books written by J. R. R. Tolkien. He was a no-maj, so a lot of the stuff he wrote about wizards was entirely false. At least, I think they're entirely false."

"Oh, ok," Katie said. Calvin could tell she was a little bit confused.

"Does your mom know crazy stuff about the future?" asked Jerome.

"Mostly minor things regarding the fate of individuals rather than the fate of the masses or major events. And it's pretty much short term crystal ball stuff. She's never made her own prophecy. Most seers never do. We haven't had a large scale prophecy in America since the forties, so it's been a long time. Most prophecies involve somebody being destined to vanquish somebody else. They deal with dark lords and chosen ones. The most recent prophecy that happened was like that. It mostly dealt with Britain. It seems like that country honestly gets a new dark lord running around every decade. It's only been four years since Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort and they probably are gonna get a new one any day now."

"Who was the last one about?" Jerome seemed pretty interested in all of this.

"His name was Harry Potter. The dark lord killed his parents when he was a baby and tried to kill him but he survived."

"You sure know a lot about prophecies," Calvin remarked.

"Of course I do! It's what my mom does for a living. If I ever gain seerdom I'll go into the business. What do your parents do?"

"My dad's an accountant."

"I'm sure you know all sorts of things about that, then."

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because accounting is boring."

"I can vouch for that," said Jerome. "It may be the worst job ever. Seriously, I'd rather be a janitor than an accountant."

Their conversation died off after that, and Calvin was thinking about dark lords and prophecies as he ate his pancakes. He'd read plenty of books where stuff like that happened. It was always the hero's destiny to defeat evil. He wondered what things were like for Harry Potter, knowing he had this destiny hovering over his head for his entire life. He shuddered and was glad he wouldn't have to deal with that, but he supposed he already went through something similar with his sorting. Sure, most of the other first years had taken to ignoring him, but he still noticed older students giving him weird looks. Like they expected him to do something they'd never seen before. He didn't want to let them down.

Calvin and his friends left for potions eventually. He felt a little guilty bringing Sherman into the lab after he had promised the previous day to never let him see what was happening to his kin, but he supposed that if he didn't let him near the ingredients cabinet what he didn't know couldn't hurt him.

The potion of the day was the Alihotsy draught, which, according to the textbook, could induce uncontrollable laughter. The ingredients were fairly straightforward, and aside from Alihotsy there were only two other ingredients to throw into the pot of boiling water: chopped mandrake root and gryphon talons. How all of that could force anyone to laugh uncontrollably escaped him, but he supposed he didn't have to understand the potion to brew it, and so he put all of the ingredients in obediently, following the instructions step by step.

Despite all of that, his potion was subpar and he honestly was beginning to get frustrated. He followed everything in the book, so why didn't it look the way it was supposed to? He looked to his right. Jerome's potion was a perfect iridescent purple, and Calvin was a little bit envious of how naturally brewing potions was to his friend.

"Hey, Jerome?"

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong with my potion? I followed everything in the book exactly the way it was supposed to be…"

"Hmmm…" Jerome peered into Calvin's cauldron. "I see your problem. You didn't chop up your Alihotsy leaves enough. Or your mandrake root, for that matter. Your consistency was entirely different by the time all of the ingredients melded together. It messed up the whole potion. It's kind of like making soup. For this one, you want a smooth consistency instead of a chunky one, so you need to adjust accordingly."

"Seriously? Not chopped up enough? How can you tell?"

I can still see pieces of Mandrake root and Alihotsy leaves. If you did it correctly the potion would've looked like the picture in the textbook."

Jerome was right. The potion was indeed supposed to be smooth. Calvin checked his watch. There wasn't enough time left in class to completely redo the entire thing. He reluctantly placed his cauldron on the finished potions rack to be graded.

Magical History was boring for the second day in a row. Professor Harper talked for more than yesterday, but that wasn't exactly a good thing. He basically rehashed what they were supposed to read the day before, but his droning voice and and tired demeanor made Calvin tempted to take a nap. Jerome wanted to start a game of Exploding Snap, but Calvin figured they at least owed it to their professor to pretend they were paying attention.

The only good part about the incredibly dry lecture was that they at least didn't have to do a worksheet or anything like they did the day before.

By the time the chimes went off, Calvin felt drained. It was only 10:00, but he could almost swear Professor Harper's ability to bore students was magically induced.

He gave a farewell wave to Jerome and began his trek to the Charms classroom. He'd finally be actually _doing_ magic. After all of the buildup in the two weeks prior starting when he first learned about wizards and magic, the time had finally come. He couldn't wait, and he had a grin as he took a seat next to Melissa.

"Excited?" She asked him.

"Of course! This is gonna be so much fun!"

Professor Prattles decided to not talk much, only saying that they were to notify him once they mastered _lumos_ and _nox_ because he would be performing initial magical core testops using _lumos_. He also said there wasn't any rush because they had an entire two days to do this.

"_Lumos_," started Calvin slowly, moving his wand in an upside down V. No luck. Not even a flicker. He concentrated and closed his eyes. "_Lumos_," he commanded, taking a deep breath. He opened his eyes tentatively. Nope. Something wasn't working. He racked his brain, remembering reading something in the textbook about visualization, and how magic was performed by sheer willpower and a desire to to see something happen. He closed his eyes again, this time picturing an empty void of darkness. As he whispered "_Lumos_," he imagined a light turning on and shining like an incredible beacon. He willed the light to appear, believing in his own ability to create light. The void in his mind was no longer dark, but instead filled with brilliant blue light. He opened his eyes and stared into the exact blue light he had imagined coming out of his wand, albeit a little more muted than he had envisioned. He yelped in shock and dropped his wand. The light died.

"Did-did you see that?" He asked Melissa.

"Of course I did! I can't believe how quickly you figured out how to do that! It took you, what, three tries?"

"Umm… Yeah," He stared at his wand. "That was so cool."

"You bet it was! How on earth did you do that? What's your secret?"

"I just visualized the light and willed it into existence. You should picture a light in a void. That helped me."

Calvin practiced casting the spell a couple of times to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and he raised his hand for Professor Prattles after learning how to cast _nox._

"Well, well, well," his charms professor began once he got to Calvin's desk. "You're the first student to finish. Impressive. Are you ready to be tested? "

"Yeah, I am."

"Alright then. I want you to cast _lumos_ as bright as you possible and for as long as you can. When you're too exhausted to keep going, you can stop. Understand?"

Calvin nodded.

"You may begin."

Calvin closed his eyes, visualizing. "_Lumos_," he murmured. He opened his eyes and saw the light emitting from his wand. He concentrated, making it brighter and brighter until the light almost filled up the entire dimly lit classroom. He kept the light as bright as possible for the next fifteen seconds until he couldn't go on any longer. He collapsed in his seat, exhausted.

"Very impressive, Mr. Edgley," said Professor Prattles approvingly. "I daresay that will be a difficult score for your classmates to top. I can already tell that you have a lot of talent. Good job."

Calvin spent the rest of the class period doing his best to help Melissa cast the spell, but she was still unable to by the time class had ended. In fact, only two other students had succeeded in casting _lumos _after Calvin did. It left him feeling rather confident in his abilities.

"What class do you have next?" Calvin asked Melissa as he struggled to pick up Sherman's cage. He'd been carrying around his stuff the entire day and it was really starting to bug him. His back hurt.

"Magical Flora. How about you?"

"Creature care. You already had that, didn't you? What do we do today?"

"We just learn about the basic classifications of magical creatures. It's pretty simple."

Indeed, Magical Creature Care turned out to be pretty easy. They really only had to read a few paragraphs about classification. They spent the rest of the class guessing out what class a creature was whenever Professor Stauber brought out a new animal from her tent that looked _much_ bigger on the inside than on the outside. Admittedly the only XXXXX creatures brought out were pictures, but even they were scary enough to show that those things were not to be messed around with. Calvin hoped especially that he'd never come into contact with a Basilisk. He hated snakes to begin with, and so imagining one that was seventy feet long and could kill with a glance in his direction was not his idea of fun.

"What's the point of all of this?" Nigel Johnson asked, sounding bored after Professor Stauber brought out a demiguise. "I mean, I'm not entirely sure you actually brought out a demiguise. For all any of us know it could've been an empty cage. This whole thing is stupid."

Professor Stauber looked a little annoyed. "The point is to be able to properly assess the danger that a Magical Creature poses to you. The last thing I want anybody thinking is that it's a good idea to make friends with a class XXXXX creature. You should probably be a little more invested in this unless you like the idea of being scraped off of a Manticore tail."

Nigel slouched a little, grumbling.

Class ended on that high note, and Calvin found himself fighting a smile as he carried his stuff to the mess hall for lunch. It certainly was nice to see someone who wouldn't take Nigel's crap for a change. Most of the first years were under his finger, and Calvin knew he certainly couldn't stand up to him, at least, not out in the open like that. He didn't really want to confront Nigel because he knew that that would end poorly. His best chance of ending this was to find some way to embarrass Nigel in front of the entire year. With any luck they'd all lose their respect for him if they saw him get humiliated. The only issue was which spell he should use. None of his textbooks had any information on that, but he wouldn't be surprised if the library had something…

"Boo!"

Calvin just about jumped out of his skin. His head whipped around and his face paled in shock. Oh. It was that poltergeist. What was his name? "You just about gave me a heart attack," he managed, still recovering from the scare.

The spirit was laughing uncontrollably. "Gee," he managed through tears, "you look like you've seen a _ghost_!"

Calvin glared daggers at him. "That was awful. And I hate that you snuck up on me just to say 'boo.'"

"Awww, cut me a break, kid. It wasn't that bad."

"It was."

"Tough crowd. Look, buddy, I wanted to ask… how's your urn stealing going?"

"Not great. I know how I'm gonna get into his office, but after that I have no clue what I'm supposed to do. That reminds me. Why are you asking a first year to do this for you? Wouldn't a seventh year be more qualified and less likely to get caught?"

"And also more suspicious," the ghost reminded him. "The headmaster wouldn't expect an ickle firstie like you to pull off a master heist, would he?"

"Just keep in mind that I've got a lot less experience than some of your other options. Heck, I only learned to cast _lumos _this morning. I don't even know how I'd start something like this."

"Trust me. You're the perfect person for this job."

Calvin was skeptical. This was fishy. He felt like he was being messed with by this ghost. He doubted the headmaster would expect _any _student to try to steal from him. After all, you'd have to be crazy. Which brought up an interesting question. Why on earth was he trying to do this? Any smart person would quit right away.

And so, in an effort to not act like an idiot, Calvin reconsidered his previous choice.

"I'm not gonna take your urn."

"What?"

"I like it here. I have a chance to finally be free here at Ilvermorny. I'm not gonna risk losing what I just got just so I can see your dumb secret passages. They probably don't even exist, anyways."

"Oh, Come on! You're not thinking this through!"

"No. I am. Thanks for wasting my time," Calvin murmured. "I'm gonna be late to lunch for the second day in a row."

Indeed, Calvin wasn't on time. The mess hall was already full and he saw his friends sitting at a table, chatting away. He pulled up a chair.

"Hey guys!"

"Lunch is almost over again. What's been taking you so long?"

"I just have a really long walk from my last class." Calvin supplied weakly. He took some table scraps to feed Sherman, who hadn't eaten all day.

"Are you guys excited to learn how to turn matchsticks into needles?" asked Melissa, trying to make conversation. "I kinda feel like transfiguration is gonna be the hardest of the classes where we cast spells, but I'm excited for it."

Jerome shrugged. "I don't know. Charms seemed pretty hard. I haven't made any progress on casting lumos. Nobody really did in my class."

"Calvin did." Melissa chimed in. "It only took him three tries to get it."

"Seriously?" asked Jerome skeptically.

Calvin nodded.

"Way to go man."

"Thanks."

Transfiguration turned out to be the hardest of the spell casting classes, at least for Calvin. Melissa was pretty good at it, and by the end of the class she had made the most progress out of the three of them in turning her matchstick into a needle. It was made out of the right material but wasn't pointed like a needle would've been. Calvin and Jerome were struggling. He'd been trying for forty minutes, and yet his matchstick was still a matchstick. No change. Not at all. Jerome's didn't look much different, luckily, so Calvin wasn't too far behind. That fact didn't stop Calvin from getting frustrated. How was _lumos _so easy for him while this was nearly impossible? It didn't make sense. The spells didn't seem _that_ different. So what was going wrong? He had tried the visualization technique but hadn't gotten any different results. It was just so… _frustrating_. Sure, he had struggled with potions, but he also hadn't expected to do well in that class. He'd kind of gone into transfiguration expecting it to be easy, even if that expectation was only based on his charms ability. He now knew that if he wanted to actually succeed in this class he'd need to work a whole lot harder.

"Have fun in Magical Flora," said Jerome.

Calvin blinked, taken out of his thoughts. "Well, as much fun as I'm capable of having in that class. The subject is a bit boring."

Jerome chuckled. "You've got that right. See ya, man."

"Yeah," Calvin picked up Sherman's cage and his suitcase and left the transfiguration room, making his way down towards the greenhouse. On his way down, he ran into Rachel and Katie. "Hey guys! What class did you two come from?"

"Creature care. I'm officially terrified of basilisks." Rachel told him. "And my house is Horned Serpent. You'd think I would've liked them."

"Right? They might be my least favorite thing in the entire world. They're so creepy. And they could end my life so quickly I wouldn't even know what was happening. You guys ready for another riveting Magical Flora class?"

"Oh gosh," she groaned. "I'm not sure if Magical Flora is more boring than History, but it sure is close."

"I agree," Katie said as she opened the door to the greenhouse. "It's so hard to pay attention or even pretend to care."

"Hello, you three," said Professor Beasley. "Find your seats, now. Class is about to start. I'm sure you don't want to miss a single minute of today's enlightening discussion on the wonderful world of apathy weed," He gestured towards an empty table. "Hurry along, now. Don't dilly dally."

Calvin didn't know what, but something about Magical Flora just wasn't interesting, which was weird. Back home, he used to love gardening with his dad on weekends, but the class just wasn't clicking for him. He couldn't really focus and found it hard to care.

"Apathy weed is incredibly rare, as it is normally only grown in the oases of the Sahara desert. It's extremely valuable worldwide and often sold on black markets. It's highly coveted for its ability to make anybody within a 100 yard radius automatically lose interest in just about anything. The only antidote to its effects is a face mask much like the one I am currently wearing that is specifically charmed to negate the effects of the weed. It is important for growers of the plant to wear these face masks at all times, lest they decide they couldn't care less about their job and give up on watering it. The apathy effect is a natural defense mechanism designed to prevent predators from caring about whether they eat or not. It's a truly fascinating result of magical evolution…"

Calvin stifled a yawn. Couldn't he get to the point already? He didn't care about apathy weed's defense mechanism one bit.

"We will be conducting an experiment for the next few weeks. You see, I have recently acquired one of these plants, and so the goal will be to better understand the strength and duration of apathy weed, as well as possible uses for the plant, possibly as a potion ingredient," He hesitated. "Any questions?"

The class stayed silent. Multiple students were staring off into space.

"Fascinating," Professor Beasley muttered. He started scribbling down notes on a piece of parchment frantically.

The rest of class went on as expected, but Calvin wasn't paying attention. Seriously, when would apathy weed ever be useful to him? It was such an irrelevant subject that he felt he didn't need to worry about.

He met up with Jerome and Melissa in Defense Against the Dark Arts and sat down with his friends. Instructions for what they were supposed to do were already written on the board in order to spare time. They had to master the disarming and shield charms, and once they succeeded in that they were to have their abilities evaluated by Professor Greengrass.

Calvin decided to get started right away on his work. If he worked at the same pace as charms, he'd probably be able to get evaluated on both spells in just one class period with time to spare. If he worked at the same pace as transfiguration… not so much.

"_Protego_," Calvin murmured, imagining his body being covered in a shimmering gold shield, just like in the textbook. Nothing on the first try. "_Protego," _He said again, this time more confidently and forcefully. He _believed _it would work. He willed it so. Sure enough, the shield charm had worked, and while it was a little bit shaky, it was pretty impressive for such an early attempt. His body was protected by the shimmering light and he threw a quill at the shield only to see it bounce off harmlessly. Most of the techniques he had used there to cast Protego were pretty far in the textbook, so he was glad they worked out.

"Hey, Rachel. Can I test out the disarming charm on you?"

"Sure. It'll give me a chance to try my shield."

They moved some desks out of the way to make some more space.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

"_Expelliarmus!"_

"_Protego!"_

A red jet of light erupted from Calvin's wand with impressive speed, hitting Rachel and sending her shooting backwards.

"Oh no!" Calvin rushed over to Rachel, who was getting up on her own. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that…"

She waved him off dismissively. "I'm fine. That was super awesome, though. Way to go. Was that your first try?"

"Yeah it was."

"How did you master that so quickly?"

"It's all about visualization and willpower. You need to be confident that you can cast it. I've gotten better at casting by using that."

"How on earth were you a first-gen? You use magic like you've been doing this your entire life."

"Maybe I'm just lucky?"

"Yeah, right."

"Mr. Edgley?" Calvin turned around to face Professor Greengrass. "Are you ready to be tested?"

"Umm, yeah I am."

"Follow me, then."

Calvin trailed Professor Greengrass to a small room adjacent to the main defense room. "This is the dueling room," she told him. "I want you to try to do your best to defend against my disarming charm to start. Understand?"

Calvin nodded.

"Three… two… one…"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Protego!"

Calvin's shield lasted for about five seconds and then broke. The spell hit, sending his wand flying out of his hand.

"Impressive," his Professor noted. "Especially for a first year. Now pick up your wand and try to disarm me. I won't have any shield up, so please don't try to render me unconscious.

Calvin winced. "Got it."

"Whenever you are ready."

Calvin took a deep breath. "Expelliarmus!" Professor Greengrass' wand flew out of her hand.

"Not bad," she said. She fished through her robes and pulled out a pamphlet. "Based on your performance today, I'd like to encourage you to try out for the dueling team. I have little doubt that you'd make the team and with a little training and practice you'd be able to go far in the inter-school tournament this spring. I'm going to be completely honest, Mr. Edgley. You have incredible potential and I've never heard of a first year with your level of initial skill. I hope you consider this opportunity. The dueling team would give you a chance to refine your talents."

"How'd it go?" Jerome asked once he returned to his seat.

"Not bad," Calvin replied. "Professor Greengrass wants me to consider trying out for the school's dueling team. And I think I got good scores on my disarming and shield charms, too."

"Not bad! Hey, class is almost over and it sounds like everybody's gonna play Exploding Snap afterwards. Wanna play?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Great, sounds good. You ready to show those guys that we aren't to be messed with anymore?"

"You bet I am."

* * *

Location: Unspeakable North American headquarters, somewhere in upstate New York.

Date: September 4th, 2002

Time: Early afternoon

* * *

Unspeakable 1-M sat in their office, scanning over reports from various informants throughout the country. To say that the report from Ilvermorny was interesting was an understatement. The informant there had reported a fire of suspicious origins that had sprung up in the first year Thunderbird dorms, which apparently housed Calvin Edgley. The staff had attempted to cover up the fire, but the Ilvermorny informant did some investigating and concluded the fire was caused by some sort of dark magic. 1-M hoped that the fire occurring in Calvin Edgley's dorm of all people was coincidental, but it certainly didn't look that way. Hopefully nobody else knew about the prophecy, but it was possible that somebody had been there when it was first uttered. 1-M only wished they knew whether Calvin Edgley was supposed to be a savior or a harbinger of doom. It would make deciding what to do about the boy a hell of a lot easier...

**Author's note: Sorry it took me a bit longer to upload this chapter. It was kind of difficult to write, but I feel like it turned out ok. Feel free to review and everything, I really appreciate the feedback and support!**


	4. Chapter 4: Tryouts

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book one**

**Chapter 4: Tryouts**

**September 20th, 2002.**

"Did you get the results of your tryouts from yesterday, Melissa?"

"Yeah, they posted it this afternoon."

"And?"

Melissa's face fell. "I didn't make the team."

"Well, you said yourself that it's hard to get on, right? Especially for a first year, I'd imagine."

She nodded. "There hasn't been a first year on the team in over fifty years. And the Thunderbird Quodpot team is notoriously difficult to get on. They only take the absolute best. I'm still pretty bummed, though. My dad was on the Quodpot team when he went to Ilvermorny. My brother's on it right now. I guess I sometimes feel a lot of pressure to do what they did. Which isn't to say that I don't like Quodpot. I just feel a lot of pressure to succeed."

"You shouldn't feel too much pressure. Trust me, it isn't healthy. Just shut it out. Don't listen to the noise. I do that sometimes when things get overwhelming. My dad always had this brilliant breathing system that worked every time..."

"Thanks, Calvin," Melissa said. "I think I might try that out. How did you do, Rachel? Did you make the team?"

"I just checked right before I got here. No luck for me either. I kind of wish they had a first year team. Kind of like the dueling team. That way it's not just the older kids. You get what I mean?"

"Totally. We should do that."

"We should?" Rachel seemed a bit thrown off. "I wasn't saying-"

"No, seriously. We wouldn't have to play any games, just practice for next year. I'm sure we could get a ton of people on board. It could be a ton of fun."

"You're right…"

Calvin was currently sitting in the mess hall, eating dinner with Melissa, Jerome, Rachel, and Katie. The past few weeks had been eventful, but also stressful. He'd been doing a lot between settling into a new environment, doing his schoolwork, and also prepping for dueling tryouts, which he was both excited and nervous for. It didn't help that his classes were getting harder as well. He'd just turned in an essay the day before about the No-Maj American revolution and its effects on the magical community during the 1770s. He was in foreign territory in most of his school subjects, as he had never heard about half of the things covered in many of his classes. He wasn't used to it. No-Maj school was so much easier, both academically and socially. Most of the first years still neglected to talk to Calvin or his group of friends, instead continuing to hover around Nigel, ignoring him. In previous years, Calvin had been content to be the quiet kid, but the discovery of magic had sparked something inside of him. He had a drive to learn as much as he could about everything and anything magical, and so he was more determined to succeed in school as well as determined to be well liked by everyone. Of course, that thing had yet to happen, but he wasn't impatient. In fact, he had formed a pretty tight bond with his friends in the past few weeks. The five of them were practically inseparable, hanging out in the library almost on a daily basis to do homework and play Exploding Snap or even Gobstones or chess when they got bored of cards. His friends had even been generous enough to help him prepare for the dueling tryouts, which he simply had to do well in. Apparently, if you made the team you got to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the spring tournament, and it was the most prominent school for young British Wizards and Witches.

Calvin's two best subjects (as well as his favorite ones) continued to be Charms and Defence. He wasn't mastering spells at a rate anywhere near his speed on his first day of magic casting, but he had been working hard, and as a result, was pretty successful.

"Are you nervous for your dueling tryouts, Calvin?" Calvin was snapped out of his thoughts by a question from Jerome.

"Of course I am. I'm pretty scared. This is a big deal, but I'm ready. I feel like I'm good enough to make the first year team, but I'm sure a lot of other people are trying out, so only time will tell. I've been working on my shield and disarming charms for weeks, and I've gotten really quick at casting them both. Thanks to you guys, that is. You have no idea how much it means to me when you help me practice. It's really helped me improve my skill. Well, that and the book on dueling strategy I borrowed from the library. Apparently one of the best things you can do to win a duel is throw your enemy off guard. There was an entire section on how to go about doing it."

"Glad we could help you out," said Melissa. She turned her attention to the others. "Do you guys have any plans for tonight? I know Calvin's busy, but maybe we could find something to do."

Jerome shook his head. "I can't. Not tonight."

"Why not?"

He pulled out a brochure from his pocket. "I'm going to the first meeting of the FGA tonight."

Katie looked confused. "The FGA? I've never heard of it."

"I wouldn't be surprised. It's pretty small, I think."

"What does FGA stand for?" Calvin asked.

"First-Gen Alliance. It's basically a safe space where First-Gens can hang out. And talk about, well… First-Gen stuff, I guess. You should come, Calvin. I know you can't tonight, but they have meetings on the third Friday of every month. An upper year student gave me a flyer today and told me all about it. It sounds really cool. The club leader is this sixth year named Axel, and he was talking all about how hard it is for us to get a job, and all of these other disadvantages we have to fight though in the wizarding world. I think it would be good for you to go."

"Of course I'll go. Next month, when I'm free, I promise." Calvin began to gather up his stuff. "But I should probably be going." He held out a note in his hand. "I wrote a letter to my dad and I want to send it before I have to try out tonight. I even put a chocolate frog card in with the note. I think the person on it was Newt Scamander, but I'm not entirely certain. I'm trying to write him once a week, but it's gotten hard to stay consistent. I want to at least get this one to him on time. "

"You better go quickly. What time do your tryouts start?"

"7:30. I've got time. Trust me."

"Seven minutes is not much time. You have to go all the way up to the top floor and then back down to the courtyard."

"I'll be fine…"

* * *

The owlery was a foul place, with a rotting floor and a lingering stench of animal poop. It was one of the more seldom used areas of Ilvermorny castle as a result. Calvin pinched his nose almost right away once he entered. The rancid smell was nearly unbearable. He could hardly stand it. He walked over towards an owl perched near the window, and it flew away and into the rafters once he drew closer. The same thing happened with the rest of the owls, and within minutes they were all hiding from him.

"C'mon. Seriously?"

He gave an exasperated sigh and rifled his robe pockets, looking for something to entice the owls.

_Wand… no. Parchment paper… no. Chocolate frog… maybe?_

It was worth a shot. He still had one left over from the package he'd bought before leaving for Ilvermorny when he'd gone on that shopping trip. Tentatively, he unwrapped the candy and held it in his open hand, inviting the owls to give it a try.

That was a bad idea. The chocolate frog jumped out of his hand and Calvin momentarily cursed his own stupidity. The main purpose of chocolate frogs was to jump around. He should have been making sure it didn't escape.

He dove for it, crashing into the floor. The frog slipped right through his hands. _Seriously?_

He scrambled around on the floor for a minute, having lost sight of his target.

_There it is! _

Calvin made another swipe for it and whiffed. That thing was too fast. His chances of catching it would've been higher if he'd known some sort of magic that would just bring it into his hands, but that sounded like something past his current level of ability. He'd just have to catch it the old fashioned way.

An owl swooped in and caught the frog before Calvin could entertain the idea of crawling around on the floor again.

Calvin quietly walked over to the bird, which was nibbling at the helpless chocolate frog happily. He held his letter out for the owl, which the animal paid no attention to. Calvin looked at his old, beat up, watch. He didn't have all day, and that owl was taking it's time.

Out of the corner of his eye, Calvin noticed the card that had come from the chocolate frog package. He must've dropped it in all the commotion.

He bent over and picked it up, staring right into the smoldering gaze of Ilvermorny's very own headmaster.

"Hmm," he muttered, and he flipped the card over to read the description on his back.

* * *

**Dr. Alexander Sagan**

**Sagan is well known globally for his research surrounding the usage of hobgoblin bone marrow in advanced divination as well as his current position as head of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

**Largely considered one of the foremost experts surrounding the field of divination, Sagan's work with his twin sister surrounding the origins of seerdom and how predictions can be controlled is more valuable to his field of study than it is ever given credit for. He has held his current position as headmaster for the past three years, citing a desire to 'educate the youth'.**

* * *

That was interesting, and that was the first card he had of Dr. Sagan. He was trying to keep a collection, but so far he'd gotten stuck with four copies of the exact same Alfred Weisner card, which wasn't moving his progress along.

He looked over at the window. That stinkin bird was still dilly dallying. The nerve! He had places to be!

Somewhat irritably, and having lost his patience, Calvin tucked the note into the owl's talons. "Just get that to my father," he murmured. He found it a bit creepy how the owls at Ilvermorny could find the location of a letter recipient with little to no knowledge about them, but it was on his growing list of things that probably had a long explanation but really only needed to be boiled down to one short answer: "Magic".

* * *

It was exactly 7:30 by the time that Calvin arrived at the courtyard, which was currently equipped with seven dueling rings. It was a miracle that they all fit in there. The crowd was fairly large, and Calvin estimated that there were close to 100 people in all seven years who decided to show up. It was an impressive number, especially when you considered that the total student population at Ilvermorny was almost 400, with 56 students in each grade, give or take. That meant that almost a quarter of the students at Ilvermorny decided to try out. Not bad. Of course, that meant that Calvin had more competition, but there wasn't much he could do about that. In the middle of the crowd, there was an upper year standing on a chair. He cleared his throat, and when that didn't calm down the crowd he clapped his hands loudly. People quieted down after that.

"Hey, Guys. I'm Ethan Matthews, the dueling captain. This is the biggest turnout I've seen in years so you should all expect some tough competition if you want to make the team. Don't expect to just be given a spot, even if you made it last year. Here's how it's going to work. Professor Greengrass… she's somewhere in the crowd, but I don't know where…" He scanned for a moment and then gave up. "Ah, whatever. Professor Greengrass is our teacher sponsor, and so she'll be supervising the practices and offering advice and tips, and so will I. We're going to divide you up by year and place you all in a round robin style tournament. The four best records for each year by the end of it make the team, and the fifth best one is an alternate. That means you'll know by the end of the round robin tournament if you made the dueling team. Ideally, we can finish this quickly, and as a result, we're getting some extra help from some of the teachers to supervise these matches and decide a winner. I'd like you to find a time to thank them for their time. I think that's all I have left to say now, so I want you to split up by year, with first years heading to the left most dueling ring and seventh years heading to the rightmost one."

Calvin shuffled over to the first year ring, pulling his wand out of his pocket in the process. He looked around. The teacher supervising the first year matches was Professor Bridgewater, and eleven other first years had decided to try out. Among them was Nigel Johnson. Calvin hadn't really talked to him since early in the school year, but he was still acting the same as usual and continued to be the main reason why nobody would talk to him. Needless to say, that was a duel he had no choice but to win.

"Let's get started now," began Professor Bridgewater as she unrolled a piece of parchment paper. "Line up and number yourselves one to twelve…" she paused as she waited for the students to follow her directions, and then continued speaking. "The first match is numbers one and two. The rest of you should stay close by, because we should be going through these pretty quickly."

Calvin was number seven, so he figured he'd have a little bit of time to mentally prepare before his first duel. This was a big deal to him. He'd never done anything like this before; he wasn't the type of kid to get enrolled in all sorts of after school activities by his parents. His dad had decided to let him choose, and, since nothing interested him, Calvin elected to stay out of all of that stuff. Of course, dueling was different. Calvin felt drawn to magic naturally, and recently he had acquired a desire and determination to succeed and get even better at this kind of stuff than he'd ever thought possible. It was why he'd found himself reading ahead in the textbooks, doing everything he could to not be at a disadvantage. He'd discovered a natural appetite for this learning that he never would have expected a few months ago. Dueling seemed like the perfect place to improve his magical skill, and maybe being good at something like this would lead to more opportunities for success in the future. He tried not to think about it too much, but sometimes there were nights where he couldn't sleep because it was hard to stop thinking about the circumstances of his sorting and how they would always define how people thought about him in the future. If he failed to live up to the lofty goals surrounding him, he'd never be able to escape the narrative. As a result, he did everything in his power to avoid being intimidated by that. It would only make him crack. Of course, that didn't stop him from worrying about it from time to time.

"Harriet Schwartz and Colin Marshall, you two are up first!"

Calvin's gaze fell on the dueling ring, where the first two students stood, both in a dueling stance.

"Three… Two… One…"

Spells were cast in an instant. Calvin only spotted disarming and shield charms, however, which was a good sign so far since he hadn't learned any magic beyond that with any usefulness in combat. One thing he noticed that he thought was interesting was that at certain times Harriet didn't use her shield, instead electing to simply step out of the way of her opponents spells. It was an interesting strategy. For one thing, it clearly saved her a lot of magical energy that could be directed offensively, but it was also risky because it left her in a vulnerable position where it was easier to hit her with an attack. It was only useful if Harriet could consistently dodge, which was easier said than done. The disarming charm was a fast moving spell, which was one of the main reasons for its effectiveness.

The fight eventually ended when Harriet got caught by a fast succession of spells, but Calvin respected her unconventional fighting style. In fact, he looked forward to his duel against her. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to adapt when that time came.

The next two duels were uninteresting, and they both ended relatively quickly, with one of the duelers in each of the matches inevitably having a weak shield that shattered after a little bit of stress. Calvin was feeling antsy by the time his number was up, especially because he knew who he'd be going against.

"Calvin Edgley and Nigel Johnson, please head up to the dueling ring!"

The two boys locked eyes from a distance away, and Nigel's eyes narrowed. He mouthed something that looked like: '_You've already lost this!'_

Calvin grinned. He was _so _looking forward to winning this.

He stepped into the ring and entered his stance.

Professor Bridgewater began counting down. "Three… Two… One…"

Nigel whipped out his wand and began sending disarming charms almost instantly, forcing Calvin to go on the defensive. He cast a strong looking Protego, and Nigel's spells were absorbed in the shield. Calvin smiled, sending a trio of his own disarmers in response. Nigel managed to avoid getting hit, but it had been close. The two of them began circling the perimeter of the ring, cautiously sending a stray spell here or there. Neither of them wanted to be too aggressive this early on. They weren't desperate yet.

Calvin was confident that he had a decent chance of winning the duel if it dragged out long. Nigel had clearly been practicing, but Calvin had been practicing harder. He was pretty sure that his shield was stronger, and he knew that it would hold his own under heavy fire. He remembered a section from the dueling strategy book he'd read. The one about throwing your opponent off guard. He was worried that Nigel would realize a win would be difficult for him if the duel dragged on. If he'd read the same book, Nigel might attempt something unconventional to attempt to throw him off. For all of his practice, Calvin wasn't sure how he would respond in the face of something that wasn't standard. His friends had been helpful when they practiced with him, but they had mostly done the same few things every time they'd faced off.

Calvin decided not to give Nigel the chance to throw him off. He'd beat him to the punch and end it now.

Taking a deep breath, Calvin sprinted from his side of the ring to Nigel's. If Nigel had known what was happening, Calvin would've been disarmed right away. Luckily, his move threw Nigel off, and the best he could muster was a disarming charm that flew about six feet to Calvin's right.

Quickly, Calvin threw up a shield, withstanding fire from his opponent. He sent off a couple of spells and kept on advancing on his foe. Nigel was slowly backpedaling until he got stuck near the edge of the ring with nowhere to go. He threw up a Protego in desperation but it wasn't as strong as it had been in the beginning. It only took a few spells from Calvin for it to break, and he ended swiftly after that.

"Expelliarmus!"

The charm connected and Nigel's wand dropped to the floor.

Calvin held out a hand, and Nigel surprisingly took it.

"Good match. That really went down to the wire."

"Yup. Great match," Nigel's voice was simply dripping with sarcasm.

Calvin left the dueling ring still slightly in shock. _How on earth did I do that? I'm still not entirely sure that even happened, but I won't complain. I'm just… a little bit surprised I'm capable of that. I mean, it was so cool!_

Calvin performed pretty well in the next few matches, winning some close duels and also some not very close ones. By the time his last duel came around, his spot was all but locked up.

"Calvin Edgley And Harriet Schwartz, please head to the dueling ring,"

Calvin walked up to the dueling ring, doing his best to stay alert and aware. He'd seen Harriet fight. She had some good tricks, and it would be hard to outperform her. He'd have to hope to tire her out and force her to slip up, but he wasn't sure if that plan would work out.

"Ready?"

The two first years nodded, determined looks on their faces.

"Three… Two… One…"

They both sprung into action. Calvin lashed out spells as fast as he could, and Harriet was doing a good job of dodging his attacks and returning fire One of Calvin's disarming charms almost hit, but it ended missing by an inch.

"Protego!" Calvin threw up a shield quickly and it ended up getting hit by a fast succession of disarmers. The golden light of his shield faltered for a moment, and then solidified once more when Calvin put more willpower into the spell.

His shield didn't last long after that, however, as Harriet sent another group of spells in his direction, causing the magical wall to flicker.

Calvin grunted in frustration. He didn't like being put on the defensive, but he had few other options. Simply put, Harriet was able to put a much larger amount of her time and magical stamina into trying to disarm Calvin, which was forcing him to turn all of his attention into stopping her attacks.

Their duel dragged on for another couple of minutes, and Calvin was beginning to feel fatigue. For the past sixty seconds the two duelers had fallen into a familiar rut that involved Calvin casting the shield charm and his shield inevitably breaking under intense strain from enemy fire. And then the process would cycle over. Rinse and repeat. Calvin was constantly backpedaling, and it got to the point where Harriet no longer had to worry about dodging his spells since he'd stopped sending them out of self preservation.

"Expelliarmus!"

Calvin attempted to cast a shield charm, but it was a moment too late. The spell connected with his chest, sending his wand flying out of his grasp.

It was over. Calvin hunched over with his hands on his knees, exhausted. "Good match," he managed as Harriet walked over. "Your strategy really had me tired by the end of it. How on earth do you dodge those spells in time?"

"Years of practice," Harriet said flatly. "My grandma's been preparing me for this for ages. She used to cast stinging hexes at me and make me dodge them. You get pretty good eventually."

"Oh, that's…" Calvin made to reply but stopped when he realized Harriet was already walking away from him.

Hmm. That conversation was… well, he wasn't entirely sure. Weird, he supposed. But at least she'd been willing to speak to him. That was a rarity among first years.

Calvin exited the ring and headed over to the spot where his wand had fallen picking it up and confirming that it hadn't been damaged. His duel had been the last of the night, and so Professor Bridgewater was supposed to announce who made the team any moment.

Sure enough, she cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Good job, all of you. That was pretty impressive, especially for a bunch of first years. None of you should give up on dueling, even if you don't make the team. You can always try out next year, and if you work hard, you might make it. With that said, here are the members of the first year dueling team, in order based on record. First is Harriet Schwartz. Second is Calvin Edgley. Third is Derek Brabahm. Fourth is Samantha Watkins. The reserve is Nigel Johnson."

Internally, Calvin cheered. He was on the team! Awesome! He was already looking forward to having the opportunity to improve his ability and skill. Plus, he'd get to go to Europe in the spring, which was pretty cool. It kind of sucked that Nigel made the team as well, since any interaction with that kid was unfavorable, but there wasn't much he could do about that. He'd just try to leave him alone and hope that Nigel would follow suit.

* * *

Calvin found his way back to the Thunderbird common room around 9:45, and the first thing he noticed was that Melissa and Jerome had stayed up waiting for him. They were both sitting in chairs by the fireplace, oblivious to his arrival.

"Hey, guys! I'm back."

His friends turned around, recognizing his voice.

"How did it go?" Melissa asked.

"Pretty good. I made the team! I'm super excited, especially because I'm actually starting and not a reserve."

"That's awesome!" Jerome told him.

"Thanks. How was your meeting?"

"You know, it was a super interesting experience. I'd recommend you come to the next meeting even more now."

"Of course I will. It sounds amazing."

"We can talk about all of this more in the morning, guys. It's getting pretty late, and curfew is pretty soon." Melissa said to them.

"Yeah, you're probably right. C'mon Jerome, we should be getting to bed soon. Goodnight, Melissa."

"Goodnight, you guys."

Later on, as he drifted off into sleep, a thought went through Calvin's mind.

_Finding out I was a wizard was the best thing that's ever happened to me… _

**Author's note: Chapter four is in the books. I'm sorry that it's a little bit shorter than the others, but I couldn't really put anything from the next chapter into this one without it being weird. I know birds can't eat chocolate, but this is fantasy, so I'm just gonna use magic to explain that one. Thanks for reading this, it means a lot to have support on this story. As usual, I'd like as much feedback as possible; this thing is clearly a work in progress and has a lot of areas of improvement, and so the best way for its quality to rise is feedback from reviews.**


	5. Chapter 5: The FGA

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book one**

**Chapter 5: The FGA**

**October 18th, 2002**

The October weather had gotten a bit colder, with an increase in falling leaves and light wind as autumn began to kick it into high gear. To Calvin, this was perfect weather, and so he was doing his best to take advantage of it by sitting in the courtyard peacefully on a bench and enjoying the chilly breeze. He wasn't alone, however, as the courtyard was a rather popular destination for hanging out, especially on a day like this. It was a Friday and classes were done for the week and so a large number of students were relaxing with friends. Calvin had a bit more going on than simply sitting around, however. He was waiting for Jerome to show up because they'd agreed to rendezvous in the courtyard prior to the FGA meeting they were going to together. Jerome had yet to make an appearance, however, and Calvin was a little bit worried about his whereabouts. He twirled his wand in his hand, absently trying to levitate a pebble resting at his feet to pass the time. It twitched a little bit, but Calvin wasn't putting in his full effort.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late. I lost track of time,"

Calvin turned around to face Jerome, getting up from his bench. "And what was it that made you forget about the meeting?" The two boys exited the courtyard, heading towards the second floor meeting room. "I've been waiting for twenty minutes. You were the one who wanted to get there early."

"I know, I know. I was writing an essay for potions. Four pages."

"A potions essay? Are you kidding me? I didn't know we had-"

"It was extra credit," Jerome explained, cutting him off. "About the potential uses for fluxweed in concoctions other than polyjuice potion."

"Your potions grade is fine! Perfect, actually. Why do you need to do extra credit?"

"I don't. It's just for fun. You do extra stuff like that all the time too, though. How many charms and defense books do you have checked out from the library at the moment?"

"Four," Calvin said.

"Why? Your grades in those classes are fantastic. I don't see any reason for you to be checking out even more books. And you also spend a lot of time out of your day at dueling practice."

"I guess you've got a point."

"Of course I do." Jerome chuckled. "You get frenetic whenever you talk about charms and defense. It's easy to see it. I do the same thing with potions. We do it all because we really enjoy the subjects and want to learn more."

"Can't argue with that," Calvin said. He pointed down the hallway towards a classroom with a sign on the door that he couldn't read. "Hey, is that the meeting room?" A couple of older kids were standing outside, chatting.

"It sure is," Jerome told him. He waved down the kids by the door to catch their attention. The tallest one -who had a distinct European look and the Wampus insignia on his robes- noticed him and grinned.

"Jerome! Glad to see you brought your friend with you! We were just about to start the meeting."

"I'm glad to be back again," said Jerome. "Sorry we're a little bit late. I got caught up with some potions stuff."

"It's fine, he said. "Don't just stand in the hall, come in so we can get this meeting going. I'm Axel, by the way. Axel Blumquist," he said, eyes meeting Calvin. He extended a hand. "Welcome to the FGA. it's nice to have you here."

Calvin shook his hand. "Calvin. Calvin Edgley. It's nice to be here."

Calvin and Jerome entered the meeting room and Calvin had to blink a couple of times. Sitting on a table in the center of the room was a big pile of No-Maj food. Oreos! Chips! Pizza! Various posters for No-Maj bands were scattered around the room, half of which Calvin had only heard of in passing. There was even a small television sitting in the corner of the room. All of the first gen stuff made him feel a little homesick. Sure, being at Ilvermorny was a dream come true, but he occasionally found himself missing First-Gen luxuries. Stuff like pens. And Chinese takeout, and baseball, and air conditioning. It was nice to have a little reminder of home.

Overall, the club was small, as was the room. Calvin counted fifteen people aside from him and Jerome, and they were pretty spread out as far as age and house were concerned. One thing Calvin noticed was that they were the only two first years there, although as far as he knew they were the only two first year First-Gens.

Calvin took a seat next to Jerome. "This stuff is amazing! How did they manage to get some of this in? I thought technology short circuited around magic…"

"It does," Jerome told him. "They said at the last meeting that stuff like the TV are purely decorative. It's not functional, but apparently the No-Maj studies teacher donated it to the FGA along with a lot of other stuff when the club was formed like ten years ago."

"I like it in here," Calvin said. "It reminds me of home in a way."

"It does, doesn't it? I totally agree."

Calvin and Jerome stopped their conversation as everybody got settled. It appeared that the meeting was about to begin.

"Welcome to the second meeting of the FGA, everybody." The boy who had greeted Calvin and Jerome at the door -Axel- was standing up and addressing the group. "We have a new visitor today, his name is Calvin Edgley. I want you all to give him a warm welcome."

Calvin gave a tiny wave.

"Calvin, do you want to introduce yourself? No pressure, you don't have to."

"No, it's fine," he stood up. "Hi. Um, I'm Calvin, and I really like charms and DADA. I'm a first year in house Thunderbird and I'm on the dueling team." Calvin took his seat again.

"Alright, then, Calvin. A few things every First-Gen starting out at Ilvermorny should know. Trust me, this information really has helped me get through life as a First-Gen. First thing you should know is that there's a severe bias against those without magical heritage, especially by the wealthy. The old, rich wizarding families are the ones who make the rules in society, and so you're gonna need to work a lot harder than your classmates if you want any chance at having a decent job when you leave school. I've heard countless examples of purebloods getting chosen for jobs over First-Gens despite being less qualified. It's been going on for centuries, and it gets so bad that people are driven out of the magical world. Personally, I'd like to apply for a job for an Auror at MACUSA some day, but the odds of that actually happening based on my parentage are slim. In some ways, Magical America is a lot further behind in terms of equality than the mundane version. I mean, we only just recently legalized marriage to No-Majs. The second thing you should know is that there are a lot of social and societal norms that you probably missed out on when interacting with others in your first couple of months of school. Wizards have an entire culture that we aren't privy to, and as a result us First-Gens are oftentimes ostracized and excluded for not being in the know. A lot of times it's little things that are deemed important, like addressing someone by their last name until given permission to do otherwise, or even something like accidentally bumping into a social superior. Most students won't be too offended by the way you act, mainly because they're too young to have any training themselves, but for the top of the social pyramid something like that is incredibly disrespectful. I have a few copies of a book on wizarding etiquette if you'd like to have one. It's a little bit wordy but essentially tells you how to respectfully act around others in wizarding society. Jerome told me about your situation with Nigel Johnson and I believe the book has some information on how to diffuse that dispute."

"Wow. Thanks. Having that book would be great." Calvin was surprised by how savvy Axel was regarding the wizarding world, although he supposed that a lot of it was acquired simply through osmosis or other means.

"Perfect. I'll have it for you at the end of the meeting."

"Sounds good."

"Anyways, where was I? Oh, right. The third thing you should know is that we're here to help out. I already told Jerome this last meeting, but this club was first founded to be a safe space. Us First-Gen's kinda live in between the wizards and the No-Majs, so we don't really fit with one group or another. If you need any help, you can come to us because we've got each other's backs. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Just a few more tiny things to remember. Never eat beige Bertie Botts every flavor beans. They're always trouble. If you want to earn some extra Dragots there's a program here at Ilvermorny that allows you to be compensated a bit for work in the library, or the kitchens, or even as a tutor. Oh! Also, there's a painting of a baboon on the third floor; avoid it at all costs."

"Why?"

"Just trust me. He's bad news. Let's see… what else? There's a ghost that hangs out around the school. Goes by Bartholomew the Bold. He likes to prank first years, so don't fall for any of his tricks."

"Wait, a ghost?" Calvin was beginning to get a little bit worried.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I already met him. He said if I took a vase from the headmaster's office he'd tell me how to access the school's secret passages."

"And you said you would?"

Calvin nodded a bit bashfully. "I guess I kind of forgot about it, but yeah. I had tentative plans to take the vase. At least, at first."

"Well don't follow through on it. Ilvermorny doesn't have any secret passages… at least, as far as I know. Besides, there's no way you could've taken anything from under the headmaster's nose. He's incredibly powerful. You would've just ended up in a whole lot of trouble. Try not to listen to Bartholomew next time. OK? I know it's sometimes easy to fall for his tricks because I even did it when I was a first year. The important thing is to stay out of trouble."

"Yeah," said Calvin. "Sounds good," what had he been thinking, anyway? Stealing from the headmaster? Did he want to get expelled? An idea like that was destined to fail, especially if the person trying to pull it off was a twelve year old first year with a couple of months worth of magical experience. He doubted a seventh year would even stand a chance in that situation. And he should've already known that it was unrealistic to believe in the secret passages of Ilvermorny, no matter how cool they sounded. After all, some things were simply too good to be true. He was lucky he'd said no before things got out of hand."

"Any other questions?" asked Axel.

Calvin shook his head.

"Sounds good, then. Moving on to the next topic of discussion…" Continued Axel, addressing the entire group instead of just Calvin. "Is there anything you guys want to talk about? How's everybody been since the last meeting? Now is the time to share whatever's on your mind."

A girl who looked like a third year raised her hand. Axel gestured at her as he sat down, indicating for her to stand.

"I just wanted to bring something to everybody's attention. Some of you probably already know this, but the No-Maj studies curriculum here at Ilvermorny is severely outdated. I waited for a while before choosing to taking action about it because I didn't want to do anything rash, but I feel like the time for sitting around has passed. I don't think that the course content has been changed in over a century, because there is absolutely no reference whatsoever to anything that happened in the 1900s. No information on technological leaps like the plane, the moon landing, atomic bomb. Nothing about either of the world wars. Heck, most of the Wizard raised in my class who live in isolated magical communities believe that No-Majs are uneducated farmers who ride in horse drawn buggies! I think it's awful how misinformed some of my classmates are. I overheard Tommy Rivers last week talking about how much fun it would be to go to Los Angeles next summer and prank the No-Majs by vanishing their livestock. In Los Angeles! There are no cows in LA!"

"So what do you want to do about it?" Interjected a boy with a floppy mop of red hair and glasses. "Do you even have a plan? Or are you just gonna complain?"

"I think, with enough people backing us up, we could go to Professor Huntley and ask him if we could update the curriculum. We could have an entire presentation to show him, and-"

"How would that go?" The redhead cut in. "Do you really think that Professor Huntley is gonna listen to us and our little presentation? He's done the exact same thing for the past thirty years. The man hates change. Besides, think about how all of the purebloods would react if they knew No-Majs had weapons that could vaporize our biggest cities in an instant regardless of what wards were up. They would freak! Maybe it's a good thing that the curriculum isn't updated."

The girl looked a little bit angry. "You always do this and it's infuriating," she huffed. "And you never know what you're talking about-"

"Betsy. John. You two both have good points," Axel cut in. "But I'm not sure if arguing will solve it."

"Right." The girl -Betsy- seemed to regain her composure. John adjusted his glasses and nodded.

"Those two did that in the last meeting," Jerome whispered, leaning over to Calvin. "It sounds like they argue pretty often from what Axel told me last month. He thinks they argue so much because they secretly like each other and don't know how else to express it."

"Axel's pretty dang smart, isn't he?"

"You bet. That's probably part of why he's the leader of this club. Well, that and his leadership abilities. Look at him! He diffused that argument so quickly."

Indeed, Betsy and John were both talking calmly and rationally about the muggle studies curriculum. And just a few seconds ago they were both on the verge of a major argument. It was astonishing.

* * *

The rest of the meeting went on without any mishaps or near-arguments. By the time it ended, Calvin was sold. This club was _definitely_ for him. No question about it. A club where he could feel safe and at home _and _talk about all sorts of No-Maj things with other people? It was perfect. Sure, it was nice to have Jerome around to talk with about mundane things, but having more people was a dream come true. It probably also helped that the FGA had snacks like pizza and cookies, but he'd gotten into an entire conversation with David Showalter about how cool the special effects in Jurassic Park were. Besides, not a single member of the club had acted differently around him because of how he got sorted, which was certainly a nice change of pace.

"Calvin? Do you still want that book on Wizarding Etiquette?" Axel was standing by a desk in the corner of the room with a stack of about five thick hardcover books.

"Sure," Calvin said. "Hey, Jerome. You can go ahead."

"OK," said Jerome. He made his way out of the meeting room, following the stream of people already on their way out. It was getting pretty late.

"Thanks for lending me this," Calvin said as he picked up the book, flipping through the pages. "I'll get it back to you as soon as I finish reading it."

"No need for that," Axel told him, cleaning up an empty pizza box. "You can keep it. I bought a ton of copies when they first came out last year. I've got a pretty big collection, and this is the kind of book you're gonna need to read more than once. The author writes a _lot._ She was a First-Gen too, though, so she gets it. Lives in Britain and just graduated from Hogwarts recently. She was also supposedly best friends with Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter. Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He killed the British Dark Lord a couple of years back. He's a big hero in Europe."

"_That's_ where I heard about him. He had a prophecy made about himself, didn't he?"

"I'm pretty sure. I don't really know too much about it, though. I was only a first year at the time and didn't pay much attention to the news beyond the headlines."

"Oh. Well, thanks so much for the Book. It's really generous of you. I should probably be going now, though. It's getting late and I want to get back pretty soon."

Axel waved him off. "Don't mention it. I'm just doing my best to help out a fellow First-Gen."

As he left the classroom, Calvin checked his watch. It really _was_ getting late, wasn't it? Almost past curfew. And he had such a long walk back to his common room too…

_I wonder if I can still catch up with Jerome?_

Probably not. It was just best for him to keep walking, he supposed.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Wait. Calvin stopped dead in his tracks. He could've sworn he'd heard something.

Footsteps. And not just his. Who else could be out in the hallways at this time? The rest of the clubs had ended a while ago, he knew that, and Axel's common room was in the opposite direction, so the footsteps weren't his. Was someone following him?

He turned himself around slowly and fearfully. Maybe ten feet away from him was a tall figure wearing a dark cloak that obscured their face. In their gloved hand was a wand pointing in Calvin's direction. The tip glowed a brilliant green.

Calvin was paralyzed in horror. The cloaked figure reared their wand and a stream of the green light shot in his direction.

Calvin got out of the way in the nick of time. If he'd stayed frozen any longer the spell definitely would have hit him square in the chest. Instead, it missed him by a millimeter.

Calvin was shocked that he was still alive but he still had the sense to make a break for it. He sprinted down the hallway, making a sharp left turn. His heart was pounding against his chest. He'd never been as absolutely terrified than he was in that moment. He held onto his book tightly. He gripped his wand in his hand so hard that his knuckles turned white. He was panicking. He had absolutely no idea what to do beyond running as fast as he could for as long as he could. His spell knowledge was limited. Only about fifteen spells, and of those fifteen only a few were actually good for combat. He knew that a disarming, shield, and levitation charm cast by a mere first year could do very little against an adult, and even the body bind spell he'd just learned last week would be ineffective. Choosing to fight would have been suicide.

And so Calvin ran. He ran like his life depended on it. He tore through the corridors at breakneck pace. He ran faster than he'd ever thought possible and he eventually lost track of where he was in the castle. He didn't stop for anything.

All of that seemed to be for nothing, however, as his follower was only about thirty feet behind him. Calvin was lucky because the hooded figure was not very accurate when running at casting spells from long distances. Spells went wide left and right, but none of them had actually hit Calvin.

Yet.

Calvin turned into a hallway, panting heavily. He couldn't do this much longer. He needed to stop. He spotted a broom closet door, slightly ajar. This was it. This was his shot.

Calvin clambered into the closet, squeezing in between a pair of brooms. He looked through the slats in the door as the cloaked figure darted into the hallway. His pursuer stopped and just stood outside of the broom closet.

Calvin could hear heavy breathing and he wasn't sure who's it was. He could only hope it wan't his.

He watched in horror through the slats as the hooded figure put a hand on the doorknob.

_Is this how I die?_ Calvin wondered. _I'm too young. I'm only twelve! I don't want to go out this way! I still have so much to learn!_

The hooded figure tried to twist the doorknob but was unsuccessful. The door must've been one of the types that automatically locked itself upon closure. Calvin silently thanked whoever came up with that design. It saved his life.

The figure abandoned the door and made their way back down the hallway, still looking for Calvin.

Relief flooded through his body. He wasn't gonna die!

Calvin waited another hour after his attacker left before he even dared to try to leave the broom closet. The last thing Calvin wanted to do was step out of the closet only to get caught right away. He would've been worried about getting out of there if not for a spell he knew that unlocked basic locks. The incantation was alohorma, and he'd picked it up from an old discontinued first year charms book from the sixties that he'd found in the library. He practiced on Sherman's cage lock for an entire week before he was able to use it successfully, but he was confident in his ability to cast it.

"Alohorma," Calvin whispered, pressing his wand on the door. It sprang open and he tumbled out of it. He needed to get help, and so after getting to his feet, Calvin went to the nearest room and knocked on the door. A very tired looking Professor Greengrass answered it, rubbing her eyes.

"Professor, I think someone just tried to kill me."

"You mean to tell me that a similar incident has already occurred at your institution and you didn't say anything?"

* * *

Phillip Martin was furious. Yesterday, he'd decided to retire early after a long, frustrating day at work and now here he was, getting a floo call in the middle of the night because of an attempted murder at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He'd gotten even angrier when he arrived at the school and received further details. Apparently this wasn't the first time in the school year somebody had done something like this. Just last month there had been a fire in one of the dormitories that the staff suspected had originated from a dark wizard. Despite that suspicion, the school's _esteemed_ headmaster, Alexander Sagan, had neglected to inform Phillip or any other law enforcement.

"We weren't entirely sure whether the cause of the fire was actually a dark wizard. We only had theories." Mr. Sagan explained, rubbing his brow. "And besides, the fire was an internal affair."

"Well, then you take those theories to us. The moment people are in danger from something like that is the moment things stop being an internal affair and start being my business. You can't simply go under the noses of the department of magical peacekeeping on this one. I've been content to turn a blind eye to a lot of this school's eccentricities, but no longer. Any issues, any _theories _you have will be reported to the authorities immediately. Lives are at stake. If you'd told us your suspicions earlier we could've had a formal investigation and aurors on campus months ago. I can tell the president to get you fired if I feel like you are doing an insufficient job keeping these children educated and safe. So no more secrets. Got it?"

The headmaster nodded his head slowly. "I understand."

"OK, then. What can you tell me about the attacks?"

"The fire occurred at 4:28 in the morning on September fourth in the first year boys dormitory. Everybody was evacuated safely thanks to the efforts of a boy named Jerome Waters. He smelled smoke and his first instinct was to get help. Our charms teacher, Professor Prattles was the first to be told of the incident and I was notified a few minutes later. Prattles and I extinguished the fire and inspected the damage, which appeared to be the result of a powerful curse. We know it wasn't fiendfyre because if it was we would've had no chance in stopping the fire's spread. I was unable to detect the original caster of the magic however, as all of my attempts to trace a magical signature came up negative. The second instance happened tonight. A student reported being chased down by a man in a dark cloak who continued to cast spells at him. The student escaped by hiding in the broom closet."

"And the wizard couldn't find the kid's magical aura because there was a lot of residual energy from the brooms in the closet." Muttered Phillip. "They acted like a smokescreen. Brilliant. Anything else you can tell me?"

"He went to Professor Greengrass and then she contacted you. We don't know anything else at the moment."

"Nothing else? No leads? No motives?"

"Nothing."

Phillip frowned. He'd been working as head of the DMP for years and had met a lot of people he didn't get along with. Despite that, nobody infuriated him more than Alexander Sagan. The man had used his fame in the field of divination as a way to earn the position of headmaster and he was grossly under qualified for his role. He found it to be a miracle that Sagan had lasted this long despite his incompetence. He wasn't even in his office when Phillip first showed up, for Merlin's sake. This kind of stuff never happened at his alma mater, Saint Louis Academy for Magic. Everything there was no nonsense.

"Where's the kid?"

"In the waiting room outside this office."

"Alone?"

"Of course not. He's with my secretary, Jan."

"Alright. Send him in. Do you have a pensive I can use?"

"Yes. It's in the back room."

"Good. I think I'm gonna need it. Can you go get it prepared?"

"Yes," Sagan said through his teeth. He got out of his chair.

The door to the headmaster's office opened and a kid walked in. He had messy blond hair and couldn't have been older than a second year. Oh Merlin. A young one. He was lucky to survive an encounter like this.

"Hello, I'm Phillip Martin. Head of the Department of Magical Peacekeeping." He held out his hand, which the kid shook rather nervously. "What's your name?" Phillip managed weakly. He'd never really been very good with kids.

"Calvin Edgley," said the boy. He was looking at his shoes.

_That_ changed things. Phillip should've expected that he would be the student who was targeted. He had been anticipating something important happening to Calvin Edgley at some point, even if only due to how the boy's sorting went down. He was probably one of the most high profile kids in the country as a result of it, after all. Phillip knew he was already on the radar of a lot of major organizations. His own department already had a file on him just in case he decided to pull a Maxwell Warrington and go rogue. The DMP was a paranoid group; they were never really keen on allowing history to repeat itself, and as a result they'd taken to making files for everybody who'd ever been chosen by multiple houses at Ilvermorny. You could never be too safe. Besides, who knew? Maybe the kid would make a good ally some day.

Phillip wasn't entirely sure the attacks were orchestrated by an actual dark wizard. After all, they were few and far between and anybody with a brain would know that attempting to break into Ilvermorny was practically suicide. Besides, he had trouble pinning a definitive motive for any of the top criminal gangs in the country. If he had to guess, he'd say that the murder attempts were probably set up by some nut job who wanted to see Edgley killed because they thought him too dangerous because he was chosen by the four statues representing the Ilvermorny houses. They were probably pureblood, too, and disliked his blood status. He could think of dozens of lunatics who'd be eager to pull that off. Most of them were barely competent as wizards, but It wouldn't take a genius to do it. All you needed was a sealed jar of curse fire and a ward breaking portkey. Both could be purchased off of the black market by any average Joe. The curse fire in a jar was an effective way to burn something down quickly and efficiently without getting blamed for it. It was also highly explosive if mishandled. Phillip had been to many areas where a jar of curse fire was mishandled, and it was never a pretty sight. The ward breaking portkey, on the other hand, was highly experimental and occasionally deadly as a result. It could break through even the most powerful wards with ease. The only problem was that it resulted in a dragged out death that was nearly as painful as the cruciatus curse most of the time, and so most sane people tended to avoid it.

Of course, you could generally rule out most sane people anyways when the crime was attempting to kill a twelve year old.

The only way to be sure of what he was dealing with was to get a pensive memory.

"Can you tell me exactly what happened to you?"

"OK. I was heading towards my common room when I realized I was getting followed. It was a tall guy and he started casting a ton of spells in my direction. So I started running, and then I managed to hide from the person in the broom closet."

"I see," Phillip mused. It was the exact same thing that Sagan had told him, so at least he knew the headmaster was being honest. "Would you mind submitting a pensive memory for my own review? Just so I can pick up anything you missed."

"A what?"

"A pensive memory. With your consent, I can view the entire altercation as if I was there. It would really aid me in finding out who this attacker is and how I can keep you safe."

The boy blinked. "Oh. Um, yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Sorry, I've never heard of that before."

"Don't worry about it," Phillip told him. He pressed his wand against the boy's temple. "Concentrate on the sequence of events."

Calvin closed his eyes and Phillip gradually pulled his wand away from his head. Attached to the tip of his wand was a silvery string of glowing silver light that dangled like a piece of hair.

"Thank you," said Phillip. He exited the room with Calvin's memory hanging off the edge of his wand.

Phillip returned to the headmaster's main office about ten minutes later with a worried expression on his face. He was definitely not dealing with some random unstable pureblood. He'd seen the memory. A very powerful wizard was after Calvin Edgley, that much he was sure of. For one thing, they had cast all of their spells wandlessly. Phillip didn't think he heard a single word during the entire memory he'd witnessed, but despite that he noticed multiple Killing Curses directed at the kid, which was a very bad sign. Anybody with the ability to cast multiple killing curses silently and in a short period of time was unquestionably threatening.

The main thing that bothered Phillip was that he had no idea who this person was. He'd tried to get a good look at their face multiple times throughout his viewing of the Edgley's memory but he had no luck. The attacker was clearly using multilayered glamour and concealing charms to hide their face, which complicated things. It suggested that they were trying to keep people from finding out their identity, none of Phillip's primary suspects at the moment particularly cared about keeping their identity a secret.

Perhaps it was somebody new? It was certainly a possibility, but he'd have to put a significant amount of his department on this case if he wanted to make any significant progress in figuring anything out regardless. In addition, it would be wise to post an auror on the Calvin Edgley 24/7 to prevent any further attacks. He estimated he could get a bodyguard for the boy by Monday, but he would probably have to take whoever was available.

Not that that would matter, though. His force had plenty of good wizards and witches.

"Did you get any new information by looking at my memories?"

Phillip blinked. He'd completely forgotten that the kid was still in the room. "A little bit. The department is going to give you security detail by Monday."

"Why?"

"We want to prevent this from happening again," Phillip said. "I believe that there is somebody trying to kill you who won't stop until they have. If there's an auror shadowing you then your chances of not dying go way up because you have protection."

The kid nodded firmly. He was taking this whole thing better than Phillip expected. He was only twelve years old and yet he was still impressive. The child had smartly chosen to run from his attacker rather than fight, and his method of hiding from the cloaked figure was ingenious.

"What's all of this about a bodyguard?" Sagan had re-entered the room. His arms were folded. "I don't want one of your aurors in my school. It will mess up the learning environment for our students and will only serve as a distraction."

"I'll get a direct order from the president if that's what I need. A student's life is at danger and you clearly aren't doing as much as you should be. The auror's showing up on Monday and if anything bad happens over the weekend it's on your ass. Understand?"

Phillip and Mr. Sagan seemed to get into a staring contest for a moment, each challenging the other's authority. Eventually, Phillip broke away and began to storm out of the room.

"Send the kid to bed. It's getting late."

Oh, how he despised Alexander Sagan!

* * *

Location: Unspeakable North American headquarters, somewhere in upstate New York.

Date: October 18th, 2002

Time: Late at night

* * *

Unspeakable 1-M sighed frustratedly and leaned back in their chair. "Shit. Are you serious?"

The head unspeakable's Ilvermorny informant, who was currently sticking their head through 1-M's fireplace, nodded. "Somebody, I don't know who, wants Calvin Edgley dead. The attack on him was targeted, that much I am positive of. And whoever it was is probably a member of our staff, just like me. I'm not 100% sure of that, but it's the option that makes the most sense, at the very least,"

The head unspeakable rubbed their temples. This was a headache. At least the boy still lived, but if that was a good thing or not was still up in the air. It certainly couldn't be a good thing that somebody else knew about the prophecy, that much the head unspeakable was sure of. Perhaps 1-M's initial theory from early September was correct and this person had somehow witnessed the prophecy. Unfortunately, 1-M had no way of knowing if this mysterious person was on their side or not. It was all very worrying, and that was before you considered the other potential issue. "And the law enforcement? I can imagine that Phillip Martin was put on the case…"

"I'm not sure. I notified you about this whole thing as soon as I could, but the most I can tell you is that a case like this probably went to the department of magical peacekeeping, which means that it is highly likely that Phillip Martin is indeed involved. Almost certain. And he takes all of this seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up getting an Auror bodyguard to watch the kid,"

1-M frowned. "Unfortunate…" Phillip Martin was a man who did not take kindly to unspeakables meddling in the affairs of the DMP. Which meant they could not have any direct impact on this investigation, which meant they had no leads on whoever this mysterious person who attacked Calvin Edgley was. It also meant they had no control over the bodyguard who was going to watch the boy. And 1-M knew Phillip Martin would probably choose Daniel Hobbes for that task, which was problematic. Not because Hobbes was a bad auror, but because he was a very vocal opponent of the unspeakables, much like Phillip Martin. Which would make getting to Calvin Edgley eventually to decipher the prophecy very difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

"What should I do, unspeakable?"

1-M blinked and looked at the Ilvermorny Informant, snapping back to reality. "Keep an eye on the First-Gen. And your co-workers, as well. If it truly is likely that one of them wants the boy dead, you need to find out who it is. Use any means necessary."

The informant nodded, unspeakable mask flickering in the fire. She hesitated for a moment before speaking again, however. "May I ask why it's so imperative that we watch the First-Gen? And why someone tried to kill him tonight?"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that at the moment,"

The Ilvermorny informant nodded solemnly through the flickering flames. "I understand," she muttered before signing out of the floo call, leaving the head unspeakable alone in the empty office once again.

**Author's note:**

**Thanks again for reading, everybody. Be sure to review if you have anything to say feedback-wise. This chapter was fun to write because I got to experiment with writing from a different point of view, so you may see more of that stuff in the future. The next chapter up is gonna be a bonus of sorts because it's not gonna be long enough to be a standalone chapter. I think that's about it. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope to have another chapter up relatively soon. Until next time!**


	6. Bonus Chapter: An Early Morning Practice

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book one**

**BONUS CHAPTER: An Early Morning Practice**

**October 19th, 2002**

Calvin Edgley woke up early in the next morning after a night of restless sleep. He was understandably worried about the events that had transpired the previous evening. Somewhere out there, and for reasons he couldn't comprehend, there was somebody who wanted him dead. This knowledge left him confused and scared and with a lot of questions. Unfortunately for him, there was no way to get any answers. The adults seemed to be just as clueless as he was, and he'd noticed a look of worry on that Phillip Martin guy after he'd viewed Calvin's memory. Clearly that was not a good sign.

The fact that nobody really knew any specific details was not helping the dozens of questions bouncing around his mind at all. They continued to sit there and force Calvin to think about them.

In an effort to get the thoughts out of his head and focus on other things, Calvin broke out a piece of parchment and a quill and wrote down what was on his mind.

_Who wants me dead?_

_Why do they want me dead?_

_How on earth did they get into Ilvermorny? Don't they have some sort of defense against intrusion?_

_Are they going to come after me again? Will I be as lucky as the last two times?_

_Is it because I'm a first gen?_

Calvin stared at the last thing he had written. Maybe it was because of the FGA meeting, but Calvin had already learned that there were people who didn't take kindly to first-gens like himself. But would somebody really go so far as to try to kill him? He didn't think so, but he found it difficult to ignore the tiny part of his brain that said otherwise.

He sat in silence for a bit, letting his questions marinate inside of his head. The more he thought about this the more terrified he got. At least an auror would be showing up in a few days time. He'd feel a lot safer then.

He had to stop thinking about this or it'd eat him alive for the rest of the day. Desperately, he looked around the dormitory, fighting to get his mind on another topic. His eyes fell on the sleeping forms of his classmates.

None of his other housemates were up at the moment. It still was pretty early. In fact, the only reason he was awake right now was because he had a Saturday morning dueling practice.

_Right. I should probably be getting ready for that now._ Dueling was the one thing that could distract him during a time like this.

He slowly pulled his school robes on over his head. Some of the other kids had robes specifically for dueling, but that hadn't been included in Calvin's school supplies section of his scholarship and so he didn't have any of his own. Maybe one day he'd get some pocket money to buy a set. That seemed like a pretty good idea.

Calvin picked up his wand off of his nightstand. This was the one thing he'd be completely lost without. He knew how incredibly important it was to his future at Ilvermorny. As long as he had a wand, he could do anything he set his mind to. Without it… he'd go back to being a No-Maj.

He headed to the bathroom to finish getting ready and started to head down to the dueling arena. It wasn't that far of a walk so he made it there pretty quickly.

Weekend practices were a bit different from the ones the dueling team had right after school. The week's practices were generally dedicated to dueling form and other fundamentals like increasing one's spell arsenal, but Saturdays were where you got a chance to show off your skills.

Calvin was a fan of these kinds of practices. He really enjoyed having the chance to prove himself week after week. Plus, it gave him a chance to try to best Harriet Schwartz, which was a feat he'd yet to accomplish in five tries.

Harriet confused him. He couldn't really get a read on her. She was an excellent duelist, the best in the entire year, but she was also cold and distant to everybody in a way that Calvin had never seen before.

He knew she didn't go with Nigel's crowd. She ate alone at her own table in the mess hall. She never interacted with anybody at all and that included both Nigel and Calvin's groups and even upper years. She never raised her hand in class and the only time he'd heard her speak was during their incredibly brief conversation at tryouts.

He'd made attempts to speak to her at other times, desperate to get tips on spell dodging, which he'd started trying unsuccessfully in his free time. She'd always avoid a conversation.

Calvin had never seen anybody more determined to be left alone.

It made her seem kind of mysterious. The No-Maj part of his mind thought she was similar to Batman, who had a secret life to hide and was thus very private. Who knew. Maybe she did have secrets.

Calvin made his way to the nearest dueling ring, which, intentionally, was the one that Harriet was already standing at. He'd tried and failed to beat her a lot in the past few weeks but this time was different. Maybe it was because he'd survived a murder attempt from a literal dark wizard or maybe it was because he was just sick of losing.

Regardless of the cause, he came to win today.

Calvin and Harriet stood at opposite ends of the dueling ring and began to count down from three in unison, as was customary for unofficial and unregulated duels.

"Three," Calvin drew his wand and gripped it tightly.

"Two,"

"One,"

Both of them started to send spells in the other direction swiftly. As usual, Harriet was neglecting to put up a shield and instead choosing to dodge Calvin's fire. And as usual, Calvin was being pushed to throw up a protego and shield it every five or so seconds. The pace of their duel started out slow but began to gradually pick up pace until they were throwing spells back and forth with ferocity in the blink of an eye.

Their back and forth continued for a minute until the feeling of deja vu smacked Calvin in the face.

Good grief. Constant shielding, the feeling of magical exhaustion. The inability to even fire back at Harriet after a bit… He was doing the exact same things he'd done every single time he'd dueled her. It was almost like he wanted to lose.

But what choice did he have? She was incredibly quick and he felt like he had no chance at actually hitting her. It didn't matter what spell he threw at her or how many or how quickly he did it. She always dodged.

_I need to do something different quickly or I might as well give up now._

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" He yelled. Harriet stepped out of the way to the right, exactly like she did every time he threw a spell in her direction.

Calvin fought back a frustrated sigh. He sent a disarming charm and watched as the red light shot out of his wand. As usual, Harriett sidestepped to the right.

He sent another spell. She stepped to the right again. They were starting to circle the ring now.

Another spell. Another step to the left. He felt like he was missing something.

That was it! His idea was probably a little bit crazy, but he had nothing to lose. Except for the match.

"I'm an idiot!" He said under his breath as his eyes lit up with realization. "She always dodges to the right. Every. Single. Time. I may be doing the same thing every duel, but so is she! Why didn't I realize this sooner? I've been dueling her so much! I could've beaten her weeks ago!"

He dropped his shield. He'd need all of the energy he could get and all a protego would do in a situation like this was drain him. He'd just have to make sure his opponent never got a chance to hit him.

"Expillarmus!" He sent another disarmer towards her, but this time he fired a second one only a few moments after the first, which he aimed a few feet to her right.

"Expillarmus!"

Harriet dodged the first spell and, as expected, stepped to her right. The spell missed by an inch. She said something he couldn't hear and her wand lit up as light shot in his direction. He wasn't in any danger of getting hit, however, as her spell went wide.

Calvin wasn't done yet. He sent a trio of spells, hoping to keep her reeling and on her toes. Each of them led a little bit further off from where Harriett was currently standing.

She dodged right, then right again, and then she walked directly into Calvin's disarming charm.

Her wand flew out of her hand, clattering as it hit the floor.

Holy crap. He did it.

Finally!

"Not bad, Edgley..." he said to himself. He walked over to Harriet, who had just picked up her wand.

"Good match," he said. He held out his hand. She shook it.

The two of them stood there for a minute. Neither of them spoke or moved. It was weird.

"Do you want to know how I beat you?" Calvin finally asked.

She looked at him quizzically.

He took that as an invitation to continue. "Every time you dodge you do the exact thing and step to the right. It took me a while to pick it up, and even longer to realize, but once I did I just aimed each of my spells a little bit ahead so you'd walk right into them. I was surprised it took me so long to figure it out, though. I mean, I have a bad dueling habit, too. I always wince before I cast a shield. You can probably tell when I'm about to do it because I tense up-"

"Let's go again."

Calvin looked at her with a bit of surprise. "Again?"

She nodded.

"Ok, then."

* * *

They dueled six more times after that, and in each of them Harriet kicked his butt in an increasingly embarrassing fashion which culminated into their final duel which lasted only thirty seconds and ended with Calvin getting completely thrown out of the ring by an overpowered Expillarmus akin to the one Calvin had cast on his second day of school.

"Good match," Harriet said. She looked a bit smug as she helped him up.

"I'll find a way to beat you again…" Calvin murmured. That was humiliating. Harriet had immediately corrected her tendency to dodge right and then he'd gone right back to losing consistently. Six times in a row, to be exact.

Whatever. He'd found a way to win once before. He'd find a way again.

Next time, though. Practice was over. The dueling club was clearing the area.

"Calvin, may I have a word?" There was a voice behind him.

He turned around. Professor Greengrass.

"Yes, Professor?" He asked.

She waited a moment as all of the remaining duelers left the room. "I was watching you and Harriet practice and I noticed you gave away how you beat her the first time. May I ask why?"

Calvin shrugged. "I dunno. It felt right. She's the best duelist in the first year but any old crumb with a wand could beat her if they noticed her dodging tendency. I feel like that's not all that fair. Especially if we want Ilvermorny to win our age bracket in the dueling tournament."

"So that's why you helped her fix it?"

"Well, that and I want to improve myself. She's my toughest match and the best way I'm gonna improve is by dueling her. I'm not sure if the others in my year are capable of making me push myself like that."

"Hmm. That was," she paused "Rational."

"Did you expect something irrational?"

"No, not at all. It just… Makes sense why you were chosen by all four statues. You surprisingly carry almost an even amount of attributes for each house. I imagine it's incredibly rare."

Calvin crossed his arms. "Is that all you needed?"

Her eyes darted around the area, making sure they were alone. "Not everything. I have… concerns about the incident last night."

"What concerns?" Now he was remembering everything that'd happened after the FGA meeting. He'd been lucky to forget about it for a couple of hours but he wasn't surprised that it was coming up again.

"I'm worried that it was an inside job. It's very difficult to break into Ilvermorny. There are methods, but they are incredibly complicated. It would be much more logical if a staff member was behind all of this. I shared my thoughts with Mr. Martin and he agreed. He's scheduled to have the Auror bodyguard show up a day earlier due to the risk you are in if my suspicions are correct."

"Ok…" Calvin said slowly.

"You should be careful until then. Stay alert. Whoever this is may try something again. And try to make a list of any teachers or other members of Ilvermorny's staff who could have a motive to do this. Do you understand?"

Calvin nodded. "Thank you, Professor."

He left after that. The thoughts he'd been thinking about earlier in the day swirled around in his head like kicked up dust. He began to feel nervous and upset again.

_I need a place to clear my head and think. _He thought. _I need somewhere quiet._

* * *

Ten minutes later, Calvin sat in a back corner of Ilvermorny's very large and very empty library with a quill and piece of parchment. He was going to take Professor Greengrass' advice.

"OK," he murmured. "First off, write down all of the teachers."

That didn't take long. He had a staff directory that he'd borrowed from the librarians desk, so it was easy.

When he was done, he started going down the list he made one by one.

"Professor Roman Adams. Never even met him."

One name crossed off.

"Professor Donovan Avery." That man was certainly not capable of murder, much less running down the hallways. He was extremely fragile, like an old brittle bone left out in the sun for an eternity.

Two down. This wasn't hard.

"Professor Matthew Beasley." Calvin didn't think the guy had any reason to kill him, but maybe there was something he wasn't thinking about. Did he ever act disrespectful in class? Sure, he didn't pay any attention during the beginning of the year, but once the curriculum moved on from Apathy Weed he didn't have any issue being engaged during class. But was that enough to make somebody kill? Or could there be other reasons?

Calvin remembered the previous night's FGA meeting. Axel had talked a lot about blood bias. One of the questions that had been bouncing around the back of his mind surfaced in the front.

_Is that enough to make someone kill?_

Calvin didn't know. But he didn't know how many of his teachers were pure blood and he couldn't exactly go around school asking all of the teachers for their blood status. That would be idiotic.

Besides, being a pure blood was hardly enough evidence to suspect someone of murder. So that was kind of a dead end. Dang. This was hard.

Calvin went down the list one by one, doing his best to think thoughtfully and reasonably.

Professor Amelia Bridgewater.

Professor Michael Harper

Professor Taylor Huntley

Professor Helen Goodwin

Professor Daphne Greengrass.

Calvin frowned. He wasn't sure about Professor Greengrass. She'd been very helpful to him during all of this, that much was obvious. She'd gotten the authorities last night and now she was telling him to stay alert and look for possible suspects. She'd even managed to help get him a bodyguard a day earlier. But what if it was all a ruse? What if she was just trying to get Calvin to lower his guard so he'd be easier to kill?

Calvin ran his hands through his hair. He was overthinking things. Wasn't he?

"There you are!"

His eyes left his paper. His friends were standing in front of him. They looked a little bit mad.

Melissa stepped forward to talk. "You weren't at breakfast. We've been looking everywhere. We were worried."

Calvin checked his watch. Wow. It was almost 10. How long had he been in the library? Hours, apparently.

"And your bed was empty in the morning. I found this note on your nightstand." Jerome pulled out the piece of parchment Calvin had written on earlier in the morning right after he'd woken up. He read from it. "Who wants me dead? Why do they want me dead? What's going on, Calvin? We were worried someone kidnapped you or something."

"No, nobody kidnapped me."

"Then what happened?"

"Last night, after the FGA meeting, someone tried to kill me. I got away, though, and managed to get help."

His friends stood there quietly.

"Mr. Martin, he's the head of the Department of Magical Peacekeeping, he says I'm gonna have a bodyguard starting tomorrow. They think the person who started the dormitory fire at the beginning of the year did it to try to get me dead."

"Holy crap…" Jerome said.

"Why are they after you specifically?" Rachel asked. She folded her arms.

He shrugged. "I have no idea. Professor Greengrass said it might be an inside job. I've been making a list of the teacher's and their motives for the past couple of hours. The bottom line is, somebody wants to kill me and I have to do what I can to make sure they don't."

"Jeez. One of our teachers could be a dark wizard." Katie muttered. She shuddered.

"Are you OK, Calvin?" Melissa asked. "I'm sure this was incredibly traumatizing."

"It was. It still is. I mean, I'm absolutely terrified right now." Calvin said. "I'm a lot more scared now that I know a teacher could be behind everything. Before I was worried but able to take my mind off of it. But now that I know that I can't think about anything else. I think I'll feel a lot safer when the bodyguard shows up."

"You just have to get through the day…" Rachel told him. "And then help will be there."

"Right." "I just have to get through the day…" Calvin repeated.

**Author's note: This is the unofficial chapter six because it's a little bit shorter than I'd like. Which is why it's a 'bonus' chapter. Think of it as chapter 5.5. The next chapter is gonna take place the following day and then I think there will be a significant time jump. ...Maybe until Christmas? I'm not entirely sure. It's all very tentative, so don't take my word on it. As usual, be sure to review so I can improve the story and follow if you want to be notified when I update this. Thanks for reading...**


	7. Chapter 6: Calvin and Hobbes

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book one**

**Chapter 6: Calvin and Hobbes**

**October 20th, 2002**

"So where are they?" Jerome asked as he slipped his robes over his head. It was early the next morning, and he and Calvin were getting ready for the day. The rest of the previous day had passed without any issues, although that could be probably attributed to Calvin's desire to not leave the library at all. His friends had pretty much stayed there with him the entire time, too. It was rather nice. Lots of reading to do, lots of hanging out with friends, and the inexplicable feeling of comfort and safety it made him feel.

"Who?" Asked Calvin. He opened up Sherman's cage and gave him some little salamander had begun to grow a lot in recent weeks. He'd done some reading on it and his species of salamander was not supposed to do any growing, so it was actually kind of surprising.

"The bodyguard. Why aren't they here already?"

Calvin shrugged. "Beats me. I hope they show up pretty soon, though." He picked up a piece of parchment. "I kind of want to give this to 'em."

""What's that?" Jerome leaned over.

"It's the list of all of the teacher's motives I made yesterday. Because-"

"It could be an inside job." Jerome finished. "Right. But do you really think one of our teacher's wants to kill you?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, it definitely _sounds_ crazy, I'm not arguing with that. But at the very least teachers have an easy way to get into the castle to attack me. And this place is supposed to have pretty good defenses, right? So I have to be paranoid if it would be next to impossible for an outsider to come here without permission."

"Yeah. That makes some sense." Jerome nodded, leaning his back against the wall. He started waving his wand around absently.

"Can I see the list?"

Calvin and Jerome both froze. They were alone in the dorms. They'd made sure of it. Calvin had specifically waited for the dormitory to be empty before he talked about this because he didn't want anybody else knowing about what happened to him. And he _definitely _didn't recognize that voice.

_Well, crap._

_Was that you?_ Jerome mouthed.

Calvin shook his head.

They both drew their wands.

"Show yourself!" Jerome shouted. He waved his wand around in the air and walked towards the source of the voice.

"Maybe we should just run…" Calvin whispered to him, pulling on his sleeve to get him away from the disembodied voice. He squinted, noticing how the air right ahead of him flickered, like the hazy air in the desert. He took a step backward, frustrated that the voice was cutting off their only exit and also absolutely terrified because he knew what was happening. "We gotta-"

He got cut off by the voice again. "My bad, you two. I forgot to turn off the disillusionment charm before I talked to you." At that, a man materialized in thin air right in front of them, blocking the exit. He had long, scraggly black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a sophisticated pair of silken wizarding robes and his height was imposing.

With great speed, and before even he could register what he was doing, Calvin pointed his wand right at the man's face in between his eyes. He glared at him. "Hands up now. Or I mess you up big time."

The man stood still for a second, obviously surprised by the wand he was staring down.

Then he started to laugh. Hard. His body began to shake and he nearly doubled over.

Calvin frowned. That wasn't expected. "Is something funny?" He asked, jabbing the wand at the visitor's face again.

"Sorry," he said, straightening up. "Didn't expect you to do that."

"Hands up. Now. Seriously, you don't want to know what I'll do to you." He did his best to sound scary but he was worried it wasn't convincing enough.

The guy stopped laughing and slowly raised his hands into the air, an amused smirk plastered on his face. He knew that Calvin was bluffing about what he would do, of course.

So why was he going along with it?

He had no clue, but one thing he did have was a hunch about who this was. If he was right…

"Who are you?" Jerome asked, beating Calvin to asking the question. He, too, was pointing his wand at the man. "What are you doing here?"

"Daniel Hobbes. I'm the Auror assigned to watch over Calvin."

"Oh," Jerome said. He lowered his wand, the tension in his face and shoulders easing up.

Calvin wasn't so easily reassured. "Do you have any identification?"

"I do. But you're gonna need to let me reach into my pockets."

"I'll do it for you. Where is it?"

Hobbes rolled his eyes. "This really isn't necessary-"

"Where is it? Tell me now."

"My right hand pocket."

Calvin put his hand in the pocket and fished it out until he found it. He glanced at it. He wasn't sure about how wizarding world IDs worked, but this one seemed legit. The name matched up, and so did the face. And as far as he knew there wasn't some sort of magical way to look like somebody else, so he was probably who he said he was.

But he wasn't gonna put his wand down so easily.

"Why were you spying on us?"

Hobbes gave him a look. "I wasn't spying on you. It is literally my job to watch you."

"So why were you invisible?"

"I didn't want to draw attention to you. Having an auror follow you around 24/7 makes you stick out in a bad way, believe me. I know the past few days have been stressful and scary for you, but you gotta trust me, buddy. I'm on your side, OK? I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm here to help."

Calvin lowered his wand slowly, reluctant to let his guard down so easily. Something about Hobbes still rubbed him the wrong way. He wasn't sure if he was trustworthy. But he did have an Auror's badge. And his reason for being invisible made sense, even if he didn't believe it. Besides, If he hadn't killed Calvin yet he probably didn't intend on it. Probably.

But that didn't mean he had to be trusted.

"We're sorry about trying to attack you," Jerome started sheepishly. "We didn't mean to-"

"Don't be!" the Auror said. "I admire your ability to be vigilant and alert at all times. Especially you, Calvin. You had your wand on me in an instant and you didn't risk anything to keep yourself and your friend safe. You'd make a great auror someday"

Calvin shrugged dismissively.

"I probably should have done a better job of introducing myself anyways," Hobbes said. "So let's start over. I'm Daniel Hobbes. And you two are…"

He held out both of his hands, one towards each of the boys. Calvin reluctantly took his left hand, noting for the first time with surprise that it was not an actual hand and instead a prosthetic. It was metallic and cold to the touch, with nothing covering up the hundreds of tiny gears whirring and clicking on the inside of the machine. Why hadn't he noticed that already?

"I'm Jerome Waters. This is Calvin Edgley,"

Calvin gave a fake smile. "I'd prefer it if you weren't invisible any longer, OK?"

"I assure you, It was only to ensure your safety. I'm just doing my job."

"Well, from now on I'd feel a whole lot safer if you were to remain visible at all times."

"If you insist."

"Oh, I do."

"Well, Mr. Hobbes, we're going to head down to breakfast soon, but Calvin and I still have to finish getting ready in the bathroom, so we'd like a little bit of privacy for a minute." Jerome said, stepping into the conversation. He dragged Calvin into the bathroom by his robe before Hobbes could say anything and barely waited for the door to close before he started grilling his friend.

"What on earth are you doing? You're acting really strange, and this isn't like you at all."

"I don't trust him." Calvin said. "Something about him weirds me out, and I know I may be sounding paranoid right now, but you gotta believe me. He just rubs me the wrong way. I think he's the guy from Friday."

Jerome looked at him, a bit incredulous.

"Believe me," Calvin said. "The guy from Friday, he was wearing gloves. But why? I wasn't sure until I saw Hobbes' prosthetic hand. If he hadn't worn gloves, it would have been a dead giveaway as to who he was to the aurors when they saw my memories. It all makes sense.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. The glove thing is obviously a coincidence. I'm pretty sure the first rule of committing a crime is to wear gloves. And even if it wasn't coincidental it would be nearly impossible to prove anything with that evidence. And sure, he gave us a scare when he stopped being invisible, but he had a reason to do that in the first place, and that reason was even mindful of the fact that you didn't want anyone to know what happened. Weren't you the person that told our friend group to keep everything a secret, anyways? Besides, if he really is the dark wizard who tried to kill you two days ago, why didn't he try to do it again today?"

"I dunno, Jerome. Maybe he never wanted me dead in the first place, just kidnapped or something. Or maybe he's just trying to get me alone. Maybe he's just waiting for you to leave me…" he trailed off. "Oh, God! Please don't leave me alone with him!"

"Ok, Calvin. Calm down. I'm not gonna leave you. You're overreacting and not thinking rationally. I think that all of this is just the events of Friday night catching up with you finally and making you scared. Look, I want to be here for you. So does Hobbes. He's literally the guy that the _government_ sent down to protect you. He's here to keep you safe from the real dark wizard. I don't think you can afford to distrust him."

Calvin folded his arms. "I'm not letting my guard down. This is the guy from Friday and I know it. I don't know why he hasn't tried to kill me yet, but I'm not trusting him at all. I think I should go to Phillip Martin, but I don't even know if I can trust him if he hired Hobbes..."

Jerome sighed, tossing his hands up into the air. "We should probably get out now, anyways."

The two boys left the dorm's bathroom and walked over to Hobbes. One of them was much tenser than the other.

"We're ready to go," Calvin said.

"I know you don't trust me, Calvin" the Auror told them as they headed towards the first floor mess hall. "And that's ok. I know things may seem fishy, but my top priority is keeping you safe, and I'll find some way to show you that."

* * *

Eating breakfast with Hobbes the Auror was uncomfortable for Calvin. His table got a lot of weird looks for sitting with a forty-something year old man, but Calvin refused to allow him to turn invisible.

It was especially uncomfortable when he had to pretend everything was fine when it was obviously not. He was nervous and on edge during the entire meal, and he hoped none of his friends noticed. Of course, he wanted to warn them about the danger he was in, but like Jerome they probably wouldn't believe him at all. So he just nodded along and pretended to listen to his friends as they talked amongst each other.

He gripped his wand under the table until his knuckles were white, eyes never leaving Hobbes as he practiced the motions for the body bind curse over and over. He knew he was right. He just had an intuitive feeling about it, and he was frankly quite upset with Jerome for not believing him.

If only he had some proof…

"Hey! Calvin!" A pair of fingers snapped in his ear and forced him to take his eyes off of the Auror.

"What?" He asked angrily, slightly bothered.

"I was just wondering if you were gonna come to the Quodpot game today," Melissa said, now that she'd gotten his attention. "It's house Thunderbird against house Horned Serpent. I asked you a couple of times already but you seemed kind of spaced out."

"Sorry," Calvin said. He considered the proposal. The Quodpot match was going to be crowded, he was sure of that. Going would prevent Hobbes from trying anything, so it seemed like a good idea. Maybe he'd be able to relax. "I'm in." He said.

"Great! It's gonna be so much fun now that everybody's coming. Have you ever seen a Quodpot match before?"

"No. Never."

"Right, Duh. I should've known that."

Calvin returned his gaze to Hobbes. The auror hadn't spoken to his friends beyond simple introductions, and he seemed to be content with just sitting and eating in silence for the most part. He drummed his metallic fingers against the table rather absently, staring off into the distance.

He was plotting something, Calvin concluded.

* * *

Calvin had seen the Quodpot stadium before, but only on the outside. It lay on the edge of school grounds, near the area where Mt. Greylock began to descend. It was about a five minute walk from the castle, and to get there you had to take a little bridge that went over a small stream that ran through grounds. The stadium was pretty big, with a dome on the top to protect from the elements. It was probably about the size of a small No-Maj football stadium, which was impressive to Calvin considering it was a stadium for an amateur school team rather than a professional one. Rachel and Melissa -who had already been to the stadium before during tryouts- claimed it was better on the inside than it was on the outside. Calvin was skeptical about that, though. It already was pretty impressive to begin with, and he figured they were just embellishing things.

Calvin noticed a lot of people going in the same direction as his group. It seemed like most of the school was going to the match, which he supposed made sense. It was the season opener, after all. It would be logical to see this kind of turn out, especially considering how important this sport was to a lot of the Ilvermorny student body."

"Hey," Rachel nudged him. "I was wondering. This might be a bit of a weird question. If No-Majs don't play Quodpot, what sports do they play? Do you guys even have sports?"

"Yeah, we have sports." Calvin started. "In elementary school I played baseball. I was a catcher. And then, of course there's football, and basketball, and soccer, and hockey…"

"Wow. I had no clue No-Majs had so many sports."

"Yeah," Calvin said. "I guess I kind of miss it all. Back home, all of the kids in the neighborhood used to play baseball at the park every weekend. And I used to watch the World Series every year with my dad, but this year I'm gonna miss it. Come to think of it, I'm gonna miss a lot of traditions like that."

"My mom used to bake me a cake for my birthday every year but my birthday's in February so it's not gonna happen this time around. It sucks."

"Yeah. You bet it does."

"What's the World Series?"

"It's the championship for professional baseball. Whoever is the first to win four games out of a series wins it all. Quodpot has championships, right?"

"Yeah. They were near the beginning of the school year. Professional Quodpot starts a whole lot earlier than the school version."

"Oh, OK then." Calvin mused, nodding.

The group eventually got to the stadium and got settled after a few minutes of searching for the right seats. Katie volunteered to get everybody snacks, and left pretty quickly after that, clearly on a mission.

Calvin had chosen his seat very carefully, making sure that Hobbes sat directly in front of his line of sight. He wasn't getting away with anything.

"So… Refresh me," Jerome said. "How does Quodpot work again? You've told us before, but I feel like I forgot a lot of it."

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" Melissa said. "This is literally my favorite thing in the entire world!" She was practically bursting with joy.

"Get ready," Rachel said, laughing a little. "This is gonna take more than a little bit."

"Oh, be quiet!" Melissa told her. "I know how much you're addicted to it, too."

"Anyways," she started, "The rules are actually pretty simple. You've got eleven people on each team, all on brooms. There's this tiny little leather ball, which is the Quod. Over there…" Melissa leaned over and pointed to the edge of the arena, where something resembling a peach basket sat on top of a forty foot tall wooden pole. "...Is the basket. The goal of the game is to put the Quod into the basket, which gets you ten points. You do this by passing to teammates, and eventually taking a shot. Seems simple, right? No. Not at all. The Quod is charmed to explode during random intervals in the game. It could happen in five minutes, or it could happen in five seconds. It's super irregular. Anyways, if the Quod explodes while in your possession, your team loses ten points and you need to leave the field for the rest of the half -or the rest of the game, depending on whether it happens in the first or second half-. You play to one hundred points, so halftime is whenever one team hits fifty. The whole game is a mix between stopping the other team from scoring and also trying to score yourself at the same time. Except you don't want the Quod to explode while your team has it, so you have to score as fast as possible. And you need to have the other team hold on as long as possible without scoring. There's a lot of complicated strategies involved."

"Hmm…" Jerome said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "And that pot's the only goal, right?"

"Right."

"What's stopping you from never touching the Quod and staying on the defensive? It would just keep exploding in the other team's hands and they would just keep losing points."

Melissa considered his point. "Well, your opponent would just lose points, but you'd never win because you need to score at least 10 baskets with the opponents on the field for the game to finish. And it's actually pretty hard to defend without trying to steal the ball, since no goaltending is allowed. Nobody on either team is allowed to enter the scoring circle."

Jerome threw up his hands in mock exasperation, making Calvin fight back a chuckle. "This game is way too complicated…"

"Hey, guys," Katie said, sitting down with the rest of them. She had a couple of paper bags with her. "I brought snacks! I'm glad the game hasn't started yet. Didn't want to miss anything."

"What'd you get?" Calvin asked.

"Bertie Bott's, Acid Pops, and Sugar Quills. I figured a few of the classics would be nice."

"Great!" Rachel said. She opened one of the bags and pulled out a green jelly bean. "What'd you guys think? Grass clippings, lime, snot, or broccoli?"

"Definitely broccoli," Katie told her. "I'll never forget the look of a broccoli Bertie Bott's bean…" she trailed off.

"I think it's lime," Melissa said. "No doubt in my mind."

Rachel held the bean in her palm, inspecting it closely. She put it up to the light. "Yeah," she said. "Lime. Definitely lime."

She put the bean in her mouth, chewed on it for a bit, and made a face. "Broccoli," she groaned. Katie and Melissa both laughed hysterically.

It occurred to Calvin at that moment that he wasn't paying as much attention to Hobbes as he'd intended. He spared a glance in his direction. The man was sitting in his seat, ever silently. Calvin thought about it for a moment. Hobbes hadn't tried to kill him yet. And what moron would try anything hostile while this many people around?

Yes, he was probably safe from whatever his "bodyguard" was scheming. At least for the time being. He could afford to spend some time with his friends and let his guard down. Besides, he wasn't even 100% sure Hobbes really _was_ the bad guy.

"Wait a minute, Broccoli jelly beans?" He asked.

"Yeah," Katie said. "These are Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The name does not exaggerate the slightest. Here," she dropped a blue one in his hand. "Now, that one is either blueberry, toothpaste, soap, or, blue cheese.

Calvin tentatively bit into the bean, yelping in surprise as he realized that this Bertie Bott guy had managed to make a jelly bean taste like blue cheese. Chocolate frogs were impressive, but somehow the magic behind Bertie Bott's was on another level.

"How do they do this?" Calvin asked. "I mean, this is remarkable. I wish I knew what kind of charms they cast to create the flavor…"

"Actually," Katie said. "I'm pretty sure they use a lot of different potions to do it."

"...Really?" Jerome chimed in, suddenly very interested.

"Shhh!" Rachel and Melissa both looked at them with glares.

"It's about to start!"

Indeed, the game was about to start. A red light shot into the sky, the leather ball came into play, and an announcer's voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"And the Quod is up! This begins the first match of the 2002 inter-house season, which will no doubt be one of the best yet! Benjamin Daniels of house Thunderbird corrals the Quod! He passes it to McArthur, who tosses it back to Daniels again, but OH! Stolen by Harper! What a brilliant move, there! The Thunderbirds are falling back on defense, now, and the Horned Serpents are waiting for things to develop. They better not take too long, though, or their window to score will close. Harper tosses it to Yuri, who makes to toss it again, but THE QUOD EXPLODES FIRST! Only a few seconds in! What a disappointing start to the season for house Horned Serpent, who now has a negative ten points on the scoreboard…"

"Ooh…" Rachel said. "That stings."

"It must be disappointing to be a fan of the worst team." Melissa said jokingly.

"We'll turn around once I get on there."

"Not if I'm on Thunderbird's team, you won't."

"That reminds me," Calvin said. "Weren't you guys going to start a little training thing for the first years who didn't get on the team. Is that still gonna happen?"

Rachel shook her head. "No, not really. We had trouble getting people because nobody wanted to risk invoking the mighty Nigel's Johnson's wrath by doing something with us."

Melissa nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure the only person outside our friend group who isn't constantly worshipping him is Harriet Schwartz. And she doesn't talk to anybody. Or play even Quodpot."

"Yeah. She sure is a good duelist, though." Calvin said. "I've only beaten her once in like fifteen tries. She's impressive."

They both gave him a look.

"What? She is."

"Have you ever talked to her, though?" Melissa asked him.

"What? Nothing more than a few sentences. Why?"

She shrugged. "That's a lot more than I've accomplished. She is literally the most secretive person ever."

"Agreed," Rachel mused.

"Anyways..." Calvin said slowly. "Axel from the FGA gave me a book on wizarding etiquette a couple of days ago. He said it might help out with the Nigel situation. I haven't read any of it yet, but maybe it could ease that situation."

Melissa actually laughed. "I don't think that will help."

"Why not?"

"Our parents were friends, so I've been unfortunate enough to go to a lot of social gatherings with him. He's… not exactly one for etiquette or manners. Admittedly, I haven't been to one with his family in a few years, but I doubt he's changed."

"It's worth a shot, at least." He told her. "Don't have much to lose."

"I guess not."

Calvin returned his eyes to the match after that, finding it hard to resist just sneaking a peek at Hobbes. He was safe right now. No reason to be freaking out for the next hour or so.

"Daniels handles the Quod! He passes it to Wormwood, who throws the long pass to Chè! No Horned Serpents nearby…Chè takes the shot from right outside the scoring circle! And he SCORES! Wormwood with the assist! House Thunderbird is taking a commanding twenty point lead early on! Will the Horned Serpents be able to retaliate?"

"Chè's the captain." Melissa whispered to him. "He's a seventh year. Might go pro.

Next year there's gonna be at least five empty spots on the team."

Calvin watched the match for a little bit longer until he began to feel the call of nature out of the blue.

"Crap. I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a couple of minutes, you guys." He said. He was about to go, but then felt compelled to do one last thing.

"Don't follow me," he whispered into Hobbes' ear. "Seriously."

* * *

Calvin was booking it through the stadium, weaving through the groups of people who were up getting concessions. He felt a sense of urgency, like he absolutely had to get to the bathroom right away. Sure, he'd felt urgency to use the toilet before, but never like this. He felt like he'd simply _die_ if he took any longer.

He found a bathroom eventually and rushed in as quickly as he could. He noted with a little bit of surprise that he no longer had to go just moments after getting in.

Weird. He turned around and tried to open the bathroom door, but it wouldn't budge.

It was locked.

Oh, crap.

He whirled around and ducked instinctively. A green spell went right where his head had been. Only a few feet away from him stood an imposing figure in a cloak wearing gloves. Oh no. The guy from Friday.

No, not just the guy from Friday. _Hobbes_. He'd been right all along. Hobbes had no intention of keeping him safe whatsoever. He wanted him dead.

Calvin screamed. He tried the doorknob again, feeling his stomach drop as he realized he was gonna die. He'd gotten lucky a couple of days ago, but clearly this guy liked finishing business.

In desperation, he pulled out his wand. He hoped he'd have enough time to unlock the door, but in the back of his mind he knew he had no chance.

Hobbes grasped his neck with a strong hand and hefted him up. Calvin dropped his wand and clawed at the man's hand, desperate for air. He kicked and struggled but the man's grip did not release.

Hobbes turned him and pushed him against the wall. Calvin desperately reached for the door, only about ten feet away. His mind was racing, fear coursing through his veins.

_I'm gonna die. I can't do anything about it. _He realized bitterly. _I'm gonna get strangled to death._

Calvin stopped struggling, then. It was over. It had been over the moment he went into the bathroom. God, why hadn't he thought of bringing Jerome with him? He'd been so compelled to be alone. Did Hobbes do something to make him let his guard down?

Calvin's hands and legs went slack. He didn't have much air left. His time was running out.

Hobbes raised his wand to Calvin's head. He leaned his face closer, but there was some sort of magic preventing him from seeing the face of his killer.

"I'm sorry," Hobbes told him, voice distorted and warped. "You had the potential to be one of the good guys, but things got in the way of that."

There was silence after that, with Calvin struggling to stay awake. Nothing but silence, and then…

Noise. The door got knocked down with a resounding bang, and a large orange blur torpedoed directly into Hobbes, slashing wildly.

Hobbes lost his grip on Calvin, screaming loudly, and the first year dropped to the floor, taking huge gasps of air. _What the heck?_ He struggled to get up but was too weak, so he settled for just turning his body towards the intruder.

The thing that had burst in and attacked Hobbes was a tiger. A, hulking, muscular, 500 lb tiger stood over Hobbes. Calvin's jaw dropped as he stared in awe. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He had so many questions right now and no clue how to answer them, but the most prominent one in his head was also the hardest to answer.

_Why on earth did that tiger save my life?_

Hobbes lay on the floor in a pool of blood. It had all happened so quickly, but Calvin was pretty sure the tiger clawed at his back and forced him to let go of his neck.

"T-t-thank you…" Calvin managed. The tiger gave him a polite nod and then began to change. The orange and black fur gave way to human skin, the tail disappeared, and a human face formed. It only took about three seconds, but by the end of it the tiger had transformed into a human being. One he recognized, in fact.

Hobbes.

"Are you ok?"

Calvin just sat in shock.

"Wait a minute," Calvin said. "I thought you were the guy in the cloak…"

Hobbes laughed. "Wow, you really don't trust me, do you? I told you, I'm on your side. I'd never do anything to harm you."

Calvin sat there for a minute, processing everything. He'd been wrong. "I can't believe I didn't trust you. All day I've been convinced you were him," he gestured to the man in the dark cloak who was still laying unresponsively on the floor. "I'm really sorry. I was just really paranoid."

"It's fine," Hobbes told him. He helped Calvin up. "The good thing is that we caught the bad guy. I don't think you'll have anything to worry about from now on. I already called for backup from the DMP, and we'll be interrogating this guy by the end of the day to figure out what he knows."

Calvin nodded. "How did you… How did you change into a tiger?"

"I'm something called an animagus. I can change into a tiger at will."

"That's cool. How do Iearn to do that?"

"It takes months or even years of training before you make any progress. It's-"

Out of the corner of his eye, Calvin spotted the cloak guy getting up slowly, grasping his wand. "Look out!" He yelled to Hobbes.

But the cloaked man wasn't after Hobbes. He pointed his wand at Calvin again. He was about to cast something, but Calvin's Auror bodyguard stepped in front, blocking his chance at a shot.

"You're not living long enough to get to him," Hobbes snarled.

The guy in the cloak seemed to realize that on his own, and he sprinted out of the room, disillusioning himself first. Hobbes seemed torn between chasing the guy and staying with Calvin. His eyes darted back and forth between the first year and the door, finally deciding on the first year.

"Other Aurors are coming," he explained. "They'll catch him.

* * *

Phillip Martin -head of the Department of Magical Peacekeeping- sat at his desk in his office in New York. Sitting across from him was Daniel Hobbes, one of the most accomplished Aurors in the force, and the person assigned to protect Calvin Edgley.

To say the day's events were worrying was an understatement. He'd never seen anything like it in all of his years in law enforcement. He'd never seen someone so absolutely hell-bent on killing an eleven year old as the mysterious man in the cloak. It made no sense whatsoever. This person was so desperate to see Edgley dead that they'd try an attack in broad daylight while surrounded by the majority of the residents of Ilvermorny.

Hobbes drummed the metallic fingers of his hand against the table impatiently. "Did they catch him?"

Phillip shook his head solemnly. "He got away. Our auror's did a complete sweep of the stadium and didn't come up with anything."

Hobbes scowled.

"I agree with your decision to stay with the boy, however. It would've been unwise to leave him alone, and there's no guarantee that you would've caught him." Phillip was well aware that his words would do little to comfort Hobbes. The man constantly obsessed over every little mistake he made on the job. He was the kind of person to let those _what if? _questions get ahold of his thoughts. The only time Hobbes left work happy was when he'd done literally everything perfectly.

"Have you seen the memory yet, Phillip?"

Phillip nodded. "Yes, yes I have. It appears that Mr. Edgley was influenced by a rather high powered compulsion charm that forced him to enter the bathroom. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing who cast the compulsion, because it could've literally been anybody in the stadium at the time."

Hobbes nodded. "Right."

"The good thing is that this attack all but solidifies the earlier suspicion that this is an inside job. I want you to watch all of the staff and see if anybody is suffering from any back injuries. That could be a real indicator of guilt."

"That reminds me," Hobbes said, pulling a folded scrap of parchment paper out of his robe pocket. "Calvin wrote a bunch of possible motives for the teachers to attack him down on this piece of parchment. He gave it to me shortly after today's incident. I scanned over it. A lot of the things on there seem minor, but there's some good information in it. For example, do you think that his blood status could be making him a target?" He handed the parchment to Phillip.

"I considered it on Friday, but I feel as if there is a different reason. If he truly was getting targeted because of his status as a First-Gen, don't you think there would be other first-gen's targeted? His own housemate, and the only other First-Gen in his year -Jerome Waters- was only in danger for one of the attacks, and it could be argued that that danger was purely coincidental."

Hobbes crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. "So if it isn't his bloodline, then why is this person so desperate to see him dead?"

"Think about it for a second. What's the one thing that sets Calvin apart from his peers and also every single wizard or witch in the country?"

Realization struck Hobbes' face.

"His sorting." Phillip continued. "Like it or not, the circumstances surrounding that sorting have very important connotations and it affects a lot about how our society perceives that boy. This has never happened before in our entire history. As far as a lot of people are concerned, it _shouldn't _happen. And so maybe some people are afraid of what he will become. Maybe they don't want to find out."

Hobbes sat there blankly for a moment, digesting what his boss just told him. "So you think there's a teacher at this school that's afraid of what? An eleven year old who has a slim chance of becoming evil? Do you really thinks that warrants attempted murder?"

Phillip shrugged. "One of the things I've learned throughout my time on this earth is that fear can be a very powerful weapon. Fear can drive people to do things they'd never normally consider." He scanned the sheet of paper Hobbes had given to him. "Do you mind if I keep this? I may want to refer to it later."

Hobbes nodded. "What do you think about what the man said to Calvin? 'You had the potential to be one of the good guys, but things got in the way of that.' What's that supposed to mean?"

"I wish I knew…" Phillip said. "I really wish I knew…"

They sat in silence for a few seconds until Phillip broke it.

"Thank you for letting me keep the parchment. Oh, and one last thing before you are dismissed. Calvin Edgley, where is he right now?"

"At Ilvermorny. I asked Longhorn to cover for me while I met with you. He's in good hands."

"Fantastic. Don't let that boy out of your sight after today. I fear like the attacks may not end for a while…"

* * *

Location: Unspeakable North American headquarters, somewhere in upstate New York.

Date: October 18th, 2002

Time: Afternoon

* * *

"You requested my presence, unspeakable?"

Unspeakable 1-M sighed heavily. "I did, Edison. I need your advice. Take a seat, please."

Edison obliged. "What is it?"

"It happened again…"

"What?"

"The First-Gen boy at Ilvermorny was attacked again during a Quodpot match. I was just informed of it about twenty minutes ago."

Edison Quick's face fell. "How many times is that? Three?"

"Yes. Three, so long as the fire at the beginning of term counts."

"Is the boy alive at least?"

"He survived largely thanks to his bodyguard."

"Hobbes," Edison sneered. His greatest failure as a recruiter for the unspeakables. Daniel Hobbes had once been a sixth year Student Assistant at Ilvermorny. And captain of the dueling team. And one of the brightest transfiguration students in the past fifty years. Edison had tried to get him on the unspeakables many times, but the man was incredibly paranoid, so he wasn't inclined to join an organization that operated in the shadows. Fast forward to today, and he was one of the best aurors in the force. Such a disappointing waste of his talents, in Edison's opinion.

"Yes, Hobbes." 1-M clarified. "We need to plan-"

Edison cut 1-M off. "Is there anything we can do? I feel like our hands are relatively tied in this situation all things considered. Hobbes will keep him safe, and the Ilvermorny informant will keep on watching out for our culprit. This person hasn't managed to kill the First-Gen so far, right? And he may have some sort of protection so long as that prophecy doesn't get completed."

The head unspeakable rubbed their temples. "I suppose we've done all that we can."

"Have you talked with unspeakable 17-C and… the other one?" Edison still refused to call 84-W by his name out loud. He didn't deserve it. Not after his failed experiment.

"The prophecy is still secure. 17-C assures me that both of them are willing to help in any way they can. I told them the best way to do that was keep watching the prophecy."

Quick nodded.

1-M cast a quick tempus. "I… I have to go. Regular life thing in fifteen minutes."

"I'll leave you to it, then…"

"Thank you."

And with that, Edison Quick left the head unspeakable's office.

* * *

**Author's note: And that's the end of the official chapter six! I couldn't resist naming Calvin's bodyguard Hobbes, and it was even harder to resist making him a tiger animagus. I've been a big fan of the comic strip for pretty much my entire life, so I thought that it was the perfect little reference to fit into my chapter title. This chapter got done pretty quickly, but I'm gonna do what I can to finish the next one soon. I feel like I should be a lot more productive with getting chapters up now that I have so much free time due to quarantine, but we'll see what happens. The next chapter is gonna take place during Christmas, and after that will be the dueling tournament. I plan on doing a couple of decent sized time jumps, but my plan may change. Anyways, be sure to review, because I'd really appreciate your honest opinions oh how the story is progressing so far. Feel free to follow to be notified every time I update.**

**Until next time…**


	8. Chapter 7: The Punch

The Ilvermorny Files

Book one

Chapter 7: The Punch

December 25th, 2002

* * *

"C'mon, man. We gotta meet up with Katie and Rachel to exchange Christmas gifts in ten minutes. Melissa's waiting in the common room for us. What's taking you so long?"

Calvin Edgley ran his hands through his hair frustratedly and looked at Jerome, one of his closest friends. "I know, I know. I want to go exchange gifts, it's just… Sherman's missing. He isn't in his cage and I'm worried something bad happened to him."

"When did you last see him?" Jerome asked.

Calvin adopted a look of concentration. "Last night I fed him before I went to bed. And I noticed he was missing about five minutes ago."

"I'm sure he'll turn up," Jerome reassured him. He put a hand on Calvin's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. He's a smart pet. And he's not gonna get eaten by anything, either. He's been getting bigger since September. I'm starting to think he may be more than just a salamander."

"Do you really think so? You really think he'll be OK and he'll find his way back."

"of course," he said. "Trust me on this."

"...If you say so," Calvin muttered. "But I'm going to look for him after the gift exchange."

"I'd be glad to help you," Said Hobbes, who was leaning against a wall in the corner of the empty Dormitory. He didn't talk very often, but when he did he showed himself to be a pretty cool guy, Calvin figured out.

"That would be great, thanks."

"I'll help out too," Jerome told him. "And I'm sure Melissa, Katie, and Rachel would be willing to help out also."

Calvin nodded, feeling a little bit less worried about his pet. He walked over to his bunk and grabbed a bag filled with presents for his friends. "Let's get going, then."

He followed Hobbes and Jerome down the staircase and to the Thunderbird common room. It was crowded, what with it being Christmas morning, and so it was harder than expected to find Melissa among the masses of people. Truth be told, they didn't actually find her; she found them. And Calvin realized this when he heard the sound of a throat clearing and turned around to see Melissa standing there, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. She was gripping a piece of parchment in her hand tightly, and she looked…

Well, to bed completely honest, Calvin wasn't sure how to decipher her expression. She just seemed on edge and wound up tight.

"What took you so long?" Melissa asked, throwing her hands up in the air. "We aren't gonna make it in time, now!"

"Sorry," Calvin said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was just worried because I'm pretty sure that Sherman is missing."

"Your pet salamander?"

Calvin nodded.

"He'll show up eventually. We have to get going!" She started over towards the door, weaving through the crowds of people with ease. She stood on the other side of the room and turned around. "Don't just sit there!" She yelled, gesturing for them to follow.

"She sure wants to get there on time," Calvin grumbled.

"To be fair, she did organize this whole gift exchange thing. It would be awkward if she wasn't on time."

"I guess that's true," Calvin admitted. "But do you really think that Katie and Rachel are gonna care if we're a couple of minutes late? Neither of them strike me as the type of people to throw a fit over that."

"Yeah, but you know how Melissa cares about being on time." Jerome began to weave through the crowd to get to the other side of the room.

Calvin shrugged and followed his friend.

* * *

The group had decided to meet in the library, because, as they guessed, it was nearly empty on Christmas morning. Aside from the librarian and a kid who was sitting in the back corner reading a book quietly they were alone. Which was a little bit of a weird feeling for Calvin because the library was so large and he'd never seen it nearly as empty.

Regardless, the library served as a good neutral meeting site for the group, as they were spread out between three different houses and thus couldn't go into one of their common rooms as a group. And Calvin knew they all wanted to celebrate Christmas together, because pretty much everybody else in their year ignored them, so they pretty much had no other options.

Ugh. Just thinking about that made him mad at Nigel. His yearmate's form of bullying had started out with getting Calvin and his friends to be outcasts, but it had evolved since the attack at the quidditch match and now included an almost constant stream of insults and snide remarks, both about his 'dirty' lineage and also how he was so weak that he needed a bodyguard to protect him. Calvin knew he was just saying those things to be a jerk, but that didn't make the verbal assault hurt any less. And he'd told Hobbes not to intervene whenever it happened, and while he knew it made the Auror feel pretty conflicted, he was also aware that if Hobbes did something, he'd just be Nigel more ammo.

Katie and Rachel were already waiting by a table when they got there, and Melissa began apologizing right away for being late.

"It's fine," Rachel reassured her. "Seriously. Don't worry about it."

"What held you guys up?" Katie asked quizzically.

"Sherman went missing," Calvin explained. "I'm gonna go looking for him after this is done. Do you guys want to help?"

Rachel shrugged. "Why not?"

"Why did you get a pet, anyway?" Katie asked. "I'm pretty sure you're the only person in our year who has one, at least as far as I know."

"To be honest, the person who introduced me to magic recommended it. They said that pets used to be all the rage back in their day and they were making a comeback. And I still had a few Dragots left on my school supplies fund from Ilvermorny, so I went with it. Obviously I expected more people to get pets, though. Why didn't that happen?"

"I feel like it's an older tradition. My parents had pets, I know that for sure," Rachel told him. "But there's a certain risk factor involving buying a pet, especially from the seedier shops. There's no way of knowing that you're getting what you think you are. I've heard stories of people who got animagi who were in hiding."

"Ugh," Calvin said. "That sounds super creepy…"

"It is," Rachel said. "Which is why it's illegal for an animagus to impersonate a pet. Doing so can get you sent to Boarwood for 3-5 years, and that's only if you didn't do anything else illegal, which is rarely the case during things like that."

"Boarwood?" Calvin asked.

"Boarwood regional holding center. It's the prison for the Northeastern part of the magical United States."

"Oooohhhh…" Calvin trailed off. "How do you know all of this?"

Rachel shrugged.

"Should we get started?" Melissa interjected. "And then we can go looking for Calvin's pet."

"Right, right. We should probably do that, then."

* * *

The group exchanged presents after that, and Calvin found it super hard to stop smiling the entire time just because of how much he loved hanging out with these people. Sure, he had felt a little bit bad that all of his presents were homemade, but he didn't have any pocket change and so he had to make the best out of what he had. He'd made tiny wooden figurines of each of his friends, using a carving charm he'd found in a library book. And then he'd enchanted them to move with a tap of a wand. The movements were basic, just simple smiles or waves, and they didn't last very long, but he'd put a lot of time into it, and he could tell his friends appreciated the gesture.

The gifts he received were memorable. From Rachel, he'd gotten a bag of Bertie Bott's, which had become his favorite candy ever since the Quodpot match earlier on in the year. Katie had gotten him a book on dueling tactics and strategies. Melissa got him a fancy wand holster, which would supposedly give him a better place to store his wand when it was on his person, and Jerome got him a package of oreos, obtained from the leftovers at the last FGA meeting.

All in all it was a successful Christmas Day. It didn't fully stop him from worrying about Sherman, but it did a decent job and by the time it was over the friends decided to split up to search the castle. Melissa took charge in deciding the groups. Something about her was different today. He couldn't place a finger on it, but he could tell something was weighing her down. He didn't mention it, because she knew if she wanted to talk about it with anybody then she would. But he hoped she was OK.

"Alright, guys. We should split into three groups. Jerome and Calvin will go together and take floors one, two, and three, I'll go with Katie and take four, five, and six, and Rachel will take floors seven, eight, and any of the towers if you have the time. Try asking the portraits if they've seen anything. We will find this salamander…"

Calvin nodded, glad to have friends as good as this. He and Jerome left the library and went looking for Sherman, with Hobbes in tow.

* * *

Katie Franklin and Melissa Donahue walked together in the empty fourth floor corridor. They hadn't been searching for Sherman for a very long time but Katie had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't find him. He was big for a salamander, sure, but the castle was gigantic, and Sherman could be anywhere. They were checking the classrooms, but there were still places -like the teacher's quarters or the Wampus house common room. Or he could be outside. There were simply way too many places for him to hide. She felt pretty bad for Calvin because she knew how much he cared about that thing, despite the fact that Sherman was incredibly slimy and gross. Hopefully he managed to find his way back on his own, because the odds of one of them finding him were small.

She continued to scan her surroundings as she walked with Melissa. She spotted a flyer on the wall about ten feet ahead of her, which was surprising because she'd never noticed a flyer on the wall before. She walked over to it and took it off the wall, frowning slightly as she read the large text at the top.

Winter Dance

December 25th, mess hall, 8:00 to 11:00

"What the…" she muttered. "Melissa, did you hear anything about a winter dance?"

Melissa (who was a little bit down the hallway) walked over to Katie. "Sure I did. It's all any of the older Thunderbirds have been talking about recently. Of course it doesn't really matter to us. It's only for third years and up. Haven't you heard anything about it? It's supposed to be a big deal."

"...I guess not," Katie said. "I suppose I should get my mind out of the gutter sometimes, huh?" Truth be told, Katie often had trouble picking up important details. She was prone to zoning out frequently, and paying attention to things could be hard.

"I suppose you should." Melissa said. She pulled a crumpled up piece of parchment from her robes pocket and looked at it in reflection. It seemed like she was mulling something over. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," Katie said.

"I know you live with just your mom, but do you ever see your dad? Even for a little bit? I know it's kind of personal, but-"

"No, It's fine," Katie told her. "I haven't ever met my dad. My entire life it's just been me and my mom. And my uncle, but then he left to become the headmaster here."

"Ok…" Melissa said. "So you're alright with not ever seeing your dad? Or even never meeting him?"

Katie looked her in the eyes. "It's not that I'm alright with it, it's just that it's my reality. Sure I'd like to meet him, but I'm sure he has reasons for never being around, and so sometimes that's life."

"I-my parents are separating, and I thought you may understand what it's like. I don't know who I'm going to be staying with, or any of the details or anything, but I'm still just worried. I can't stay with my mom. She's an incredibly rude woman, but my dad makes her tolerable. If I had to…" she trailed off.

Katie was initially surprised. "Oh, my. Are you alright? How are you holding up? Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine. I just can't believe it's happening, though. I'm just trying to focus on other things, at the moment. Like the gift exchange. Or finding Sherman. I think if I distract myself I'll be fine, right?"

"Did you just find this all out today?"

Melissa nodded.

"They told you on Christmas?"

She nodded again. "It was with the letter they sent with my gift. A little note at the bottom. At least it explains why they got me a super expensive broom. They were trying to keep me from getting mad at them."

Katie was struggling to find the right words to say. She fiddled with the Pukwudgie crest on her robes. "That-that's awful. On Christmas, too? I feel so bad for you"

"Yeah." Melissa leaned against the wall and slumped down until she was sitting down. She sighed and put her head in her hands, beginning to cry. Huge heaving sobs rang through the corridor, but luckily pretty much everybody else was still in their common rooms. "Why are they doing this?"

Katie didn't know what to do, so she sat down too, scooting over to Melissa. She pulled her friend into a hug.

They sat together in silence for a bit as Katie tried to console Melissa.

"Do you think I'll be able to see my dad again? If I get stuck with my mom for the rest of my life…" she trailed off. "I don't like her," she explained.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Katie told her reassuringly. "Trust me."

Melissa nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Please don't tell the others about this," she whispered. "It felt good to tell you, but I don't want too many people to know."

"Of course," Katie told her. "I'll keep quiet as much as you want. But if you ever want to talk about it…"

Melissa hugged her even tighter. "You're an amazing friend."

Katie blushed. "Don't worry about it."

* * *

Rachel Matthews walked alone in the eighth floor corridor, looking for a salamander with no luck. She'd been looking for the past thirty minutes and hadn't seen anything. She'd even asked all of the pictures for help, but none of them had seen anything. She was beginning to get real ticked off when she noticed a familiar stretch of the building. She'd spent a lot of time in this area. Which meant that a certain painting was right around the corner…

She turned to the left and spotted an old pal. Early in the year she'd been exploring the castle when she noticed a painting of a baboon in a tuxedo. It was weird at first because literally every single painting besides this one was a human, and this one was… not. So she'd decided to talk to it and had found it to be surprisingly easy to talk to. And, well, she just kept on coming back to chat.

"Well, well, well… If it isn't my favorite first year!"

Rachel looked at the baboon portrait and grinned. Nice to see you too, Chuck."

"Long time, no see! Where have you been? I've been missing our little talks…"

"I've just been pretty busy for the past couple of weeks, is all. Have you seen a salamander anywhere around here?"

Chuck the baboon portrait faked scanning around the hallway. "Not here, no."

Rachel made to leave. "Well, I should probably get going then. I've got to keep on looking for it."

"Nonsense! You should stay. Why are you looking for a salamander in the first place?"

"My friend Calvin Edgley lost his pet. I'm trying to help him out."

"Lost his pet? Does he know about animagi and..." Chuck trailed off. "Does he know about what your aunt did?"

"My Aunt? Of course not. But he did wonder why I knew so much about the sentence for animagi impersonating pets. To be fair, it is a pretty weird thing to say, but what am I supposed to tell him? That I have an aunt in prison for pretending to be some kid's pet bird? It's just so embarrassing."

"Well, you know you can talk about it to me, right?"

"Yeah," Rachel muttered. "To be honest, I don't want any of my friends knowing much about my family at all. It's too much for me sometimes, and so what would happen if they knew? What would they do if they knew my mom was a single mother with four kids? What if they knew my dad was a disgruntled auror who went missing after killing ten innocent people, or that my mom's job as a secretary doesn't get nearly enough money to support all of us? That we're dirt poor? What if I told them the only broomstick I have is a Thundercloud One that's missing half of the bristles? They wouldn't know how to react if I told them any of that stuff, so why bring anything up about my family? And I know they sometimes wonder about it since I haven't done much sharing, especially with Katie, who I've been friends with since we were babies but still hasn't even been over to my house. But what do I tell them? Nothing, that's what. I can't tell them any of that."

Chuck considered this as Rachel's talking began to slow down. "You should tell them."

"What? No way! Not at all!"

"Why not? You don't think they would be understanding? Do you even think they'd care?"

"Melissa's dad is a high up at MACUSA. They're filthy rich, even if she tries to downplay it. Katie's mom makes a decent living as a seer. Calvin's dad is something called an accountant, which I know makes a good deal of money, especially for a No-Maj. And I don't know what Jerome's parents do for a living, just that they do well financially."

"I still think there's no harm in telling them anything. Don't be ashamed of any of that stuff, trust me."

"There's plenty of harm in telling them. I don't think we're gonna be outcasts among the first years much longer. They're all too talented for that. Calvin's an expert dueler and the best in our year in Defense and Charms. And Jerome's a potions savant. And Melissa's really good at transfiguration and she's a better Quodpot player than me. Even Katie has some seer blood in her. And her uncle's the headmaster. So when people decide to stop listening to Nigel and start hanging out with some of the most gifted people in our year, my friends might leave me behind. Especially since there's nothing special about me. I'm average in all of my classes. Not in any clubs. I'm not bad at Quodpot, but Melissa's probably better. And if they know about my mom, and my dad, and my stupid family, then the choice will be easier for them. I'd be the odd one out. Heck, I already kind of am. When we were splitting up, I was the only person without a partner. And when they all ditch me for good I'll be alone. Even Katie will leave me, and I've known her for so long. She's my best friend, but what if we drift apart?"

"It sounds to me like you're jumping to a lot of conclusions there. Try to be more positive. They aren't going to leave you so quickly, that's not logical."

Rachel considered this. "Maybe, but I just have a bad feeling about me telling them. They can't know…"

* * *

Calvin Edgley and Jerome Waters walked together in the third floor corridor. Trailing behind them by a few paces was Daniel Hobbes.

The boys had been searching for Calvin's pet for about an hour, and in that time the hallways had begun to fill up with students who had finished hanging out in their common rooms and celebrating Christmas. Of course, that just made their search that much harder as they now had to see through the congregation of people gathered in the halls. At this point, after passing the entrance to the Wampus common room for the third time, Calvin was ready to give up.

And so, he voiced his opinions with his friend.

"We should quit," he told Jerome. And when he saw Jerome about to say something, he interjected. "There's no use at this point. If Sherman wants to get back, he'll find his way on his own. I believe in the little guy."

Jerome looked at him. If you say so, then. And they were about to leave when a familiar voice stopped them.

"Hey, you! What are you doing so close to my common room?"

Calvin whirled around and glared. Nigel, oh, how he hated Nigel. His anger for the boy had grown slowly since the first day of school, as he continued to do stupider and stupider things to make Calvin mad. Originally he'd met the boy somewhat with indifference, thinking that the "shun" was a temporary thing that would die down once people got their heads screwed on tight. Of course, he'd underestimated Nigel's chokehold on the first years of Ilvermorny. Or, perhaps he'd overestimated the intelligence level of his fellow first years.

Internally, he wondered what Nigel had told his classmates to get them to leave him alone. He'd overheard some kids talking about how he was "dangerous" because he'd been chosen by all of the statues during the sorting.

Of course, his growing anger just made his interactions with Nigel increasingly hostile.

"I'm looking for my salamander. And I wasn't aware this was your common room all of the sudden." Calvin said through gritted teeth.

"So you lost your salamander?"

"That's what I said," Calvin muttered under his breath. And then he spoke in a louder voice. "Do you know anything about that?"

Nigel laughed. "Trust me, Edgley. If I had your salamander, I'd be flaunting it for the whole world to see. And then I'd feed it to the owls."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

Nigel pretended to consider this. "I don't know. Why do you hate me?"

Calvin just looked at him, dumbstruck. "Are you kidding me? Hmm… let me think. Maybe it was when you told the majority of the first years to make me an outcast. Maybe that was it. Be honest, Johnson. Why do you hate me?" Anger was beginning to seep into his words.

Nigel looked around. And then he took out his wand and cast some type of privacy charm. Calvin didn't know which one, but he knew the only people besides him and "Because you're the exact kind of person my parents told me to avoid. A filthy mudblood who doesn't belong and still tries to fit in. I saw what was going to happen after you got sorted. People were going to worship you for something you didn't deserve. For something you got lucky for. And you would get too big for your britches. So I put a stop to it. I told people things. And they weren't necessarily true things, but I notice people will believe anything if you deliver it right. And of course, I wanted them to do the same to Jerome over there as well, since then I could hit two mudbloods with one stone, and I've never really been a fan of Melissa Donahue either, so that was a no-brainer."

Calvin was seething. This was the last straw. Nigel had done so much to him and he hadn't retaliated. That was the end of that. "You-you JERK!"

He looked back at Jerome and Hobbes, who had both been standing silently during the whole exchange. They knew what he was about to do. And they both were pleading with their eyes for him to restrain himself. But he couldn't help it. He was seeing red. He was furious. Furious at Nigel, and desperate to no longer be the outcast. Angry tears began to stream fall and hit the floor. The distance between him and Nigel closed rapidly. And then his fist connected with Nigel's face long before he even registered what was happening.

Nigel fell to the floor with a howl, clutching his face. It was then when Calvin's common sense flooded back and he realized what a stupid thing he'd just done.

Nigel got up and started running.

And then he noticed Mr. Sagan standing in front of him. Arms folded and an angry expression on his face. The headmaster…

Oh, crap.

"Detention with me until March." The headmaster said, not wasting any time.

"I-"

"Not another word or that sentence stretches on to the end of the school year.."

"If I may, Alexander…" Cut in Professor Greengrass, who had just arrived on the scene, seemingly out of nowhere. "I'd like him to serve detention with me. I feel like I have the perfect punishment for him to work on his impulse management. "

Mr. Sagan frowned. "Actually, I was hoping-"

"Don't worry," Professor Greengrass reassured him. "Mr. Edgley will be in good hands and I will assure you that he will learn his lesson."

Mr. Sagan begrudgingly accepted and went on his way.

"Tomorrow night. Eight O'Clock. My classroom. Don't be late, and bring your Quills. You'll be writing plenty of lines."

Calvin nodded. He was tempted to argue about detention during break, but he was in deep enough trouble as it is.

"And I know Nigel Johnson must've said something to you to make you do that. But that doesn't make your actions acceptable in the slightest. Understood?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Good." And then she left too.

Calvin rubbed his temples. What had he been thinking? That was perhaps the stupidest thing he'd ever done, and it was just the culmination of months of pent up anger for Nigel Johnson. Merlin, he was an idiot.

"Calvin, may I have a word with you?" Hobbes pulled him aside, away from Jerome and all of the other students in the hallway. Then he put up a privacy charm. It was far more advanced than the one Nigel had cast minutes earlier.

"What is it?"

"First off, what you just did was stupid on so many levels."

Don't I know. Calvin thought.

"But I understand that you were mad, so perhaps it was a little bit justified."

Calvin tried to say something but Hobbes cut him off.

"That's not what's most important." Hobbes continued.

"It's not?" Calvin asked, surprised.

"Professor Greengrass seemed all too eager to pick up your detention. And she was suspiciously in the right place and the right time. Her classroom and living quarters aren't anywhere near where the incident took place, so I'm worried she may have been tailing us. Especially since I've been seeing her watching you with frightening frequency. Now, I know I'll be with you 24/7, but I just want to advise you to be vigilant around her, got it? My job is to protect you, and I'm not prepared to take any chances."

Calvin nodded firmly.

"Alright then. What you just did to Nigel Johnson… never do it again."

* * *

Author's Note: Chapter seven is now done! My goal for this one was to flesh out the characters a little bit more, specifically Rachel, since we haven't heard much about her. Hopefully that did the job. This chapter is what sets forward the rest of the year; I'd say we're about halfway done at this point. I feel like we're at a good spot in the plot right now, and so I'm going to put up a poll on my profile page about the future of this series. I'd specifically like to know if it would be a good idea to continue each book in one fanfiction entry. I should separate them. There are pros and cons to each of them and after weighing it over I've realized I can't choose. So I decided to leave it up to the people reading this. If you have any strong opinions one way or the other, be sure to vote, I'd appreciate your help on this one. The poll will probably stay open until when I upload the first chapter of book two. (Also, I'm going to put a notice at the bottom of chapter one about this so more people can see.)

Ps. I did some editing to chapter one. Not too much, I just added an author's note at the beginning about my plans for the series and then a couple thousand extra words mixed in. Don't worry, nothing fundamental to the plot has changed, I was just trying to improve the overall quality of chapter one, so don't feel obligated to re-read it. (Of course, you can if you want) I plan on doing it for other chapters, too, but only a couple at a time so I can keep uploading relatively frequently.

Pps. We're painfully close to hitting 50,000 words. I can almost taste it!

I think that's all I have to say, as usual be sure to review to give this story feedback and follow and favorite if you feel like it. Until next time!


	9. Chapter 8: The Dueling Tournament, Pt 1

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book one**

**Chapter 8: The Dueling Tournament, Pt. 1**

**March 3rd, 2003**

* * *

The months after Christmas eventually fell into a routine. Calvin served all of his detentions with Professor Greengrass, and, despite Hobbes' suspicions nothing happened to him. That didn't prevent Hobbes from showing up to each and every detention. The man was very paranoid, and it was a trait Calvin found himself adopting. He figured he'd have to be paranoid as long as this person was still on the loose. He wasn't 100 percent sure Professor Greengrass was innocent, despite the fact that she had been the one to tell Martin it was an inside job and the fact that he hadn't been attacked out of the blue during his detentions. She acted like she wanted to help, but if Calvin had to be honest, she was fishy and he wasn't in the position to rule out any of the teachers as suspects. That being said, there was no outstanding evidence of her being evil. Not anything like Calvin had expected. Perhaps a sign of an injury from a tiger from the Quodpot match or something. He also wasn't completely sure she would try anything else on him, especially since the first three attempts failed. Of course, that was probably wishful thinking, and he doubted that was likely as this mysterious killer was clearly desperate to see him dead for whatever reason.

He brought up the fact that he was still suspicious of his Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher with Hobbes despite the lack of new evidence and Hobbes agreed. He said he'd found something interesting when looking into the professor's background. Apparently she had been a member of a rich pureblood family in England who fled the country for mysterious reasons upon graduating from Hogwarts. Calvin had to admit that was bizarre.

In addition to his detentions, much of his time in the past months was spent practicing for the dueling team. Practices had been more frequent in the time leading up to the dueling tournament, and Calvin had been using all of his free time to practice his technique, which was admittedly lacking compared to his raw magical ability, which was one of the main things keeping him in duels at the moment. The book he'd gotten from Katie for Christmas was helping out in that department. He was now splitting his duels with Harriet 50/50 and it got to the point where any slip up by either of them resulted in a loss. The two of them were getting increasingly competitive, and he'd managed to get Harriet to say more than one sentence to him at a time, which was certainly an interesting development. He'd even gotten the chance to practice against second years, which was a good thing since his age bracket for the tournament included second years. His duels against older opponents had gone surprisingly well. He'd been able to beat each of them at one point or another, and so his confidence going into the dueling tournament-which started today- was at an all time high. If all went well he'd make it pretty far. If all went really well, he'd win the whole thing. But Calvin knew that was easier said than done, especially because his age bracket included second years in addition to first years.

Hobbes, unfortunately, wasn't showing up to the tournament. He'd been called away on urgent business and the people at Hogwarts assured him that Calvin would be safe in their hands. They were even going so far to assign a man named Hagrid to watch the Ilvermorny tents at night, and Hobbes had been told that Hogwarts would instruct it's staff to watch him in the walls of the castle.

Hobbes had left earlier in the morning, although he was rather reluctant to leave Calvin so close to Professor Greengrass, telling his charge to always stay vigilant whenever she was near.

But none of that mattered now, especially if he didn't even attend the tournament. He was busy trying to finish packing at the eleventh hour before he got left behind by the rest of the dueling team.

"Jerome!" he shouted. "Where's my toothbrush?"

"In the bathroom, stupid," his friend told him. "Duh,"

Calvin slapped his forehead and went to the bathroom. Sure enough, there was his toothbrush, sitting innocently on the counter. Good. That was everything, then.

He snatched the toothbrush and marched over to his suitcase, shoving it in and zipping it up. He scanned his now empty bunk, gaze faltering as his eyes fell on Sherman's cage. His heart sank. His pet still hadn't shown up, even after all the months. It stung, but he had to believe Sherman was still OK. He'd gotten attached to the little guy in the time he'd had him. Thinking about what happened to him would only make Calvin sad.

"When do you have to leave, anyways?" Jerome asked, sitting on the top bunk.

Calvin checked his watch. "Well, the international portkey leaves the entrance corridor…" The watch said it was 7:11. "In four minutes!" he shouted in horror. "Holy crap! I'm supposed to show up five minutes earlier than the portkey leaves! I gotta go!" Calvin bolted out of the room frantically, waving farewell to his friend.

"See you in two days!" Jerome shouted after him, chuckling.

* * *

Surprisingly, Calvin made it to the entrance hall with a minute to spare, suitcase in tow. The rest of the dueling team was already there, and they were grouped up by year and huddled around a different international portkey. Calvin made his way over to the first year team.

"Sorry I'm late," he told Harriet Schwartz. Professor Greengrass and Ethan Matthews had chosen her to be the first year captain because they thought she was the best duelist of the group. Calvin wasn't entirely sure about that, but he supposed the best way to prove them wrong was to go far in the tournament and try to be second year captain next year.

"Show up on time next time," Harriet told him.

Calvin nodded. He looked over to Nigel (who was attending the tournament as a reserve) expectantly. Nigel didn't open his mouth. Nothing. No jabs directed towards him. Obviously punching Nigel had been a terrible idea, but one good side effect of it was that the insults had stopped flying in his direction. Of course, he was still an outcast in the eyes of most of the year, but he honestly wondered if that would ever end. At least his dueling teammates were getting a bit friendlier…

"We leave in ten seconds!" Calvin heard Professor Greengrass call out to the team from somewhere out of his line of vision. "Hands on your portkeys!"

Calvin placed his hand on the rubber ducky that would supposedly take him across the Atlantic Ocean to Hogwarts. He closed his eyes, bracing for the worst. Apparently, portkey travel was worse than floo travel, and saying he wasn't a fan of the floo was an understatement.

"Three…" he heard Professor Greengrass begin to count down.

"Two…"

"One…"

And then Calvin was sucked into the void. He felt like his body was getting twisted and turned and stretched in every which way and he was powerless to avoid it because his entire body was paralyzed. He finally opened his eyes and his surroundings were shifting instantaneously. One second he was in the prairie, the next on top of a mountain, and then floating under the water.

_Wow…_ he thought as he found himself among a herd of sheep one moment and in a rainforest the other. He found himself impressed by the beauty of the world around him when he found the time to stop thinking about the nausea he was feeling as a side effect of portkey travel. He wanted to vomit.

And then it was over. His feeling of nausea was replaced with terror as he realized the ground was approaching rather rapidly without any sign of stopping. He screamed and searched his pocket for his wand.

"Arresto momentum!" He heard, and then the ground stopped getting closer. He blinked, trying to get a sense of his surroundings as he was lowered to the grass gradually. It appeared that he was sitting on the edge of some sort of forest. It was large, larger than the one on Ilvermorny's campus. And the feeling he got from it… ominous. _Dark_. The same feeling he'd gotten every time that person tried to kill him. It made him shudder. He had to get away from this place.

"Fillus, all of our visitors from Ilvermorny have arrived. You can close the wards again."

Calvin's head whipped around at the sound of the voice. Professor Greengrass was standing with two adults he'd never seen before. One of them was an older woman with a stern face and spectacles wearing the kind of hat that No-Majs always thought witches wore. The other was short, with wiry white hair and a long, crooked nose. The short one smiled at him. "I'll get on that right away," he said, turning around and walking towards the castle.

_The castle_. Hogwarts, presumably. Somehow it hadn't been the first thing Calvin noticed. It was gigantic, and an imposing and impressive feat of architecture. Towers jutted from it, and stone statues lined the entire structure. Wow. He was having a hard time deciding which was cooler, this castle, or Ilvermorny. He figured they were pretty equal when all was said and done.

Professor Greengrass cleared her throat and Calvin realized he'd been staring at Hogwarts for a considerable amount of time. "Sorry, Professor," he managed.

"It is fine," she told him. "Calvin, this is Headmistress McGonagall. I used to be a student at Hogwarts and she was my transfiguration teacher. Minerva, this is Calvin Edgley. He's a first year on the Ilvermorny team."

"Nice to meet you Headmistress," Calvin said.

"Calvin, the rest of the team is busy setting up tents closer to the castle. For some reason you showed up much later than the rest of them. I expect you to help them finish up."

"Yes, Professor," he started towards the castle and then stopped in his tracks, turning towards his DADA teacher and the Hogwarts Headmistress. "If I may ask…" he began cautiously, "Where are the other two schools? Beauxbatons and Durmstrang."

McGonagall sighed. "They haven't arrived yet. They… prefer to show up in style as opposed to the more practical form of travel that your school has selected."

* * *

Indeed, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang liked showing up in style. Calvin noticed a gigantic baby blue carriage flying through the sky that was being pulled by about ten winged horses. It certainly seemed a bit extra in Calvin's opinion. Especially when he realized that Beauxbatons was located in France, which was a great distance away from Hogwarts. He imagined it took a lot longer to travel by carriage than any other means, but then again, he was only a first year. What did he know?

Durmstrang's method of transportation was even more showy, he noted with amusement a little bit later when he noticed a gigantic pirate ship emerge from the depths of the black lake. He wondered briefly about the logistics of transporting a ship that large to the bottom of an enclosed body of water like that. He imagined it was difficult.

Professor Greengrass rounded the team up after all of the tents were set up so they could go over the schedule and the day's events. "The first and second year duels don't start for another hour or so, so you should have some time to grab breakfast in Hogwarts' great hall. But when the first age bracket duels do start, you all should be there to cheer on your teammates, got it?"

Everybody nodded.

She continued. "You've all been seeded one to eight, except for the seventh years, who are seeded one to four. We have a bracket right here, and there will be one Ilvermorny student for each seed. Ethan, if you could pass out brackets please?"

Ethan Matthews began to hand the brackets around, and when Calvin got it he looked for his name. He was supposedly supposed to go up against some Durmstrang kid named Kurt Pine, and a spark of outrage went through his body when he realized his seeding. He was a six seed! Unbelievable! He scanned the rest of the bracket. The top four seeds for Ilvermorny were all second years, and the lone first year ahead of him was Harriet.

He took a breath. It was understandable. All of the other first years ahead of him were more experienced than him, and Harriet was a very talented duelist. He'd just have to find a way to prove himself. And that started with beating Kurt Pine.

"You can spend the next hour however you like, so long as you show up on time for the duels." And with that Professor Greengrass retreated to her tent and the rest of the group dispersed.

Calvin found himself heading down to the lake, and he found a nice spot under a tree that had a terrific view. Of course, Durmstrang's ship was blocking it in part, but Calvin didn't mind all that much.

He sat in silence under that tree for a while until the silence was broken by the sound of a twig snapping.

Calvin whirled around to the source of the disturbance and saw a girl who looked to be about his age or a little bit older. She had long, silvery hair and Calvin had to admit that she was very pretty. She wore the pale blue uniform of Beauxbatons.

"Puis-je m'asseoir ici?"

Calvin stared at her in confusion for a moment. They were frozen in silence. Calvin wasn't exactly sure how to convey that he didn't know what she was saying.

"Bien sûr!" The girl shouted suddenly, hitting her forehead. She dug through her pockets and pulled out a piece of candy, unwrapping it and chewing it.

"Better?" she asked after swallowing the candy.

"What? How? I don't understand…" Calvin said, trailing off.

"Translator Taffy," the girl explained, sitting down beside him under the tree and showing him the candy wrapper, which was a vibrant array of colors. "My sister's husband's brother has a joke shop. My family gets sent a lot of free stuff. I'm Gabrielle Delacour, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Gabrielle Delacour. I'm Calvin Edgley." He inspected the wrapper a little bit longer. "This is amazing stuff. Did you know any English before you ate that candy?"

She shook her head. "I didn't know any, and I still don't. The candy takes my French and translates it to English for you. And it takes your English and translates it to French for me. At least, that's what I _think_ it does. I'm pretty sure it's still in the experimental phase. Of course, any words in French that you know would stay the same, and the same would go for me and English."

"Amazing," Calvin muttered, the gears in his head turning. "And how does it work? Charms and enchantments? Or potions?"

"Potions, I think." Gabrielle told him.

Calvin groaned. "Bummer. I've never really been one for potions. That's always been my friend Jerome's department."

"I agree," Gabrielle said. "I've always been more of a charms and defense fan myself."

Calvin did a mental fist pump. Finally, somebody who shared his interests! Sure, his friends were great, but they weren't really into the same kind of things as he was. Gabrielle was into charms, defense, _and_ dueling if her presence at the tournament was any indicator.

"So what brings you here?" Gabrielle asked. "I'm pretty sure everybody else is grabbing breakfast right now."

Calvin shrugged. "I'm not hungry. But I could ask you the exact same question, couldn't I?"

"I suppose you could," Gabrielle said. She drew her wand and started waving it around absently. "I wanted to find a place to calm down and relax before the tournament. Maybe clear my mind as well. Dueling can be fun, but it can be stressful, too."

"I can understand that. When do you duel today?"

"I'm one of the earlier matches in the day. I'm in the first and second year bracket, but I'm a second year."

"Really?" Calvin asked. "Me too. Well, I'm in the first and second year bracket, but I'm not a second year." He pulled out his bracket and found her name. "Wow. You're a one seed," he noted with surprise.

"I am," she admitted, sighing. "I'm a little bit worried about it. My parents and my sister are here and I know they expect me to win. I just don't want to let them down."

"Well, you're a one seed for a reason, right? Just try to remember that. Don't worry about letting your family down. Trust me, I know from experience that worrying about expectations won't do any help."

"Experience?" Gabrielle asked quizzically.

"When I was sorted in September something strange happened." Calvin explained, voice adopting a more somber tone as he remembered the expectations that were on him. "At Ilvermorny your house is decided by four statues. During the sorting ceremony there are four different statues and you go to the house of whichever statue you get chosen by. On a rare occasion a student can get chosen by more than one statue and then they get to choose which house they want to join. Generally the people chosen by more than one statue are supposed to go on to do great things. Rule the country, change the world… The outcome of the sorting holds a lot of weight…" he trailed off. "At least, That's how it was explained to me."

"And you were chosen by two statues?"

"Not two," Calvin murmured. "All four."

"Wow," Gabrielle breathed.

"It's never happened in the history of the school. It even made the paper. Everybody gave me weird looks and whispered when I passed by in the hallways. I knew people were expecting me to do a lot… I just didn't want to be a failure. But I'm getting used to it all. The stares and whispers have died down and when they do happen these days I'm just used to them."

They both sat in a comfortable silence for a moment.

"The worst thing these days is that most of the people in my year won't talk to me, but even that's not as bad anymore." Calvin said.

"Why won't they talk to you?"

"Some moron thought I was a 'mudblood' who thought his station was higher than it really was. So he started to spread nasty rumours about me to anybody who would listen."

"That's awful." Gabrielle said. "But I can relate to it. Or, at least, I will be able to someday."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a veela, so once I get older everybody at my school is going to be either incredibly jealous of me or compelled by magic to be unnaturally obsessed with me. It happened to my mother, and it happened to my sister, so I will not be spared.

"Veela…" Calvin was unfamiliar with the word.

"A subspecies of magical creature. I'm a quarter Veela. They have powers of attraction, and can turn into birds and throw fire. I'm not a total Veela so I can't throw fire, but I get everything else. Have you never heard of a Veela before?"

"I'm a First-Gen," Calvin admitted sheepishly. "I'm still pretty new to all of this."

"I see. Well, both my mother and sister were treated incredibly differently as a result of our lineage by the time they hit fourth year. They both said it was terrible, and the last thing I want is for it to happen to me…"

The two new friends talked all the way until they had to leave to go to the tournament. Calvin told Gabrielle about the attacks that had been happening to him throughout the year and she told him about one time when Harry Potter saved him from the very lake they were right next to when she was little, which he thought was pretty impressive. Eventually, they had to split up, but Calvin was glad he had found someone that he was able to relate to here at the tournament…

* * *

A lot of the first few fights finished quickly. In fact, three of the first four matches were done in under twenty seconds, Gabrielle's among them. She made quick work of her opponent, somebody who went to Hogwarts named Nathan Kelly. He was disarmed before he even had time to cast a spell, and Calvin had no doubt in his mind that she deserved her seeding.

Ilvermorny was not faring well halfway through the first round. The best second year duelist had lost in an upset duel, and he was the person most likely to win it for their school. In fact, Ilvermorny's record was 1-3 by the time it was Calvin's turn to duel, and things were looking grim for his team in this age bracket. All of the team's second years had been eliminated except Gregory Taylor, a boy who Calvin barely knew, so the odds were low of any Ilvermorny victory in his bracket.

Which was why Calvin stepped onto the dueling platform with a feeling of determination to defeat Kurt Pine. His opponent was a tall boy, standing almost a foot above Calvin, which was impressive, since Calvin himself was tall for his age. The boy was also large, and Calvin felt physically outmatched by the Durmstrang dueler.

The two boys stood on the edge of the ring as they waited for a referee to signal a start. Calvin was ready, and he felt a confidence in his victory. Kurt Pine wouldn't know what was coming for him.

Sparks were shot from the referee's wand, signaling the start, and Calvin and his opponent both lashed out spells with impressive speed. Wanting to start out simple, Calvin limited his first few spells to just simple shielding charms and disarming spells. But his attacks soon grew in variety and diversity as he incorporated body binders, tripping hexes, and stunners. It didn't take long for him to develop a steady rhythm, and eventually the Durmstrang duelist was sent reeling. He was talented, but most of his experience and skill lay in his shielding rather than any offensive magic, and Calvin could tell he was reluctant to lash out, and suspected it would be his downfall if he retained that reluctance. The few offensive spells he did send were poorly timed and aimed and could be avoided by some basic dodging and weaving. Calvin started to worry less about his shielding and he devoted more attention to his attacks. None of Kurt Pine's shots at him really were impressive, so he had little to worry about.

Their duel continued in the same fashion for a few minutes, and Calvin could sense the Durmstrang boy's shining golden shield weaken. It's light flickered after a particularly well timed stunner sent by Calvin, and both of them knew the match was about to end.

In a fit of desperation, Kurt Pine sent a trio of spells in Calvin's direction, but they were poorly aimed and sailed about three feet to his right.

Noticing his shield was finally down, Calvin threw as many spells in his opponents direction, noting with surprise a smattering of applause and cheering when a disarming charm threw Kurt Pine's wand from his hand.

Calvin calmly holstered his wand and exited the ring, grinning from ear to ear as he heard an announcer say that he'd moved on.

Onto the next opponent.

* * *

Calvin went back to where his team was sitting to watch the remaining matches. Durmstrang was faring the best in this bracket at the moment, as their only student to get eliminated was Kurt Pine. Their number one seed rivaled

Ilvermorny didn't do very well during the rest of the first round, and the only other person from Calvin's school to win a match was Harriet. Calvin noticed a rather upset look on Professor Greengrass' face when the last Ilvermorny student was disarmed.

Calvin overheard her muttering something under her breath. "We couldn't even move half of them to the next round?"

The second round began and Gabrielle once again obliterated her competition. She was an offensive dueler, oftentimes eager to strike, but that didn't really seem to be a weakness as neither of her opponents lasted very long and both of them so far seemed to prefer just lasting as long as possible and not actually trying to win.

After seeing the Durmstrang girl Gabrielle was faced against literally drop her wand in surrender after only a few minutes of a duel, Calvin leaned over to Gregory Taylor -the second year sitting next to him- to ask him a question.

"Why does it seem like people are afraid of her?" He asked, gesturing towards Gabrielle. "Her first opponent didn't even bother to raise his wand, and her second one literally surrendered in the middle of the duel."

Gregory shuddered. "Last year she put three kids into the hospital wing and won this age bracket as a first year. It's pretty safe to say she's earned a reputation as an aggressive dueler. The kind that will do anything to win. There are rumours that she receives private instruction from some of the best in the world because she's on track to go pro before she graduates school. She's not the kind of person you want to go up against in the first two rounds, that's for sure. We should hope that somebody gets lucky and eliminates her before anybody on our team has to go up against her, because I know I wouldn't be able to win."

Calvin looked over to Gabrielle, who was going back to her seat among the rest of the Beauxbatons team. That didn't sound anything like the Gabrielle Delacour he'd made friends with not long before. When he'd been talking to her she had seemed nervous and worried about whether she'd win. But now, after seeing her duel and hearing Gregory talked, she seemed ultra-competitive and cutthroat. Like she would do anything to win. It was almost like stepping onto the dueling ring had changed her completely.

* * *

Calvin's opponent for the second round was a Hogwarts second year named Jory Bateman, and she was exactly the kind of person who got on his nerves back in No-Maj school. Obnoxious attitude. Big ego. Overly confident, too, as was apparent. She faked a yawn shortly after stepping into the dueling ring opposite Calvin, and the only thing that did was make Calvin want to beat her even more than he wanted to previously. If she wasn't going to take him seriously, he'd _make _her take him seriously.

The referee shot off sparks to start the duel, and Calvin decided to start this match slowly, waiting for his opponent to cast the first offensive spell. He cast a shield, taking time and energy to make sure it was sturdy and would hold up well under heavy spellfire. He was glad he did this too, as Jory did not hold back, unlike Calvin's last opponent. The first three spells she sent his way were all bat-bogey hexes, and Calvin was very grateful he was protected by his shield. He'd never seen anybody get his by a bat-bogey hex himself, but he'd heard awful stories about what happened to the unfortunate victims of that particular spell. In fact, he was a little bit surprised that it was even allowed during the tournament considering its nasty effects.

Calvin returned Jory's hexes with a series of stunners, wishing he'd thought of learning some spells that were a little bit more effective. Truth be told, his spell arsenal was rather basic, and he had spent less time than he would have liked learning useful combat spells. Instead he'd opted on improving his overall technique since it was his biggest weakness. He was glad he'd done that, but he wished he had a shiny new game changing charm or hex that he could bust out right about now.

Jory responded to his stunners by sidestepping them and sending more bat-bogeys, which were apparently a favorite of hers. The spells just bounced off of his shield harmlessly, and Calvin threw back a body bind curse, a disarming charm, and two stunners, grinning. He felt like he could do this all day long.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Jory was going to slow down any time soon either. Her spells just kept on coming, and if anything the rate at which she cast them increased.

The two of them circled around the ring, casting ferociously, jabbing wands in this direction and that, each of them desperate to gain the upper hand and end this duel which had no clear end in sight.

Calvin tried to think back to the book on dueling strategy for anything that could help in a time like this, but he kept drawing a blank. Truth be told, he was using a lot of brainpower focusing on the duel and so he couldn't think back to anything he'd read in that book at the moment.

And so the duel continued, and he and Jory stayed locked in a stalemate. Neither of them would budge. It still didn't seem like it would end anytime soon.

And then Calvin remembered something. Back during dueling tryouts, he'd managed to defeat Nigel by thinking outside of the box. If he'd recalled correctly, he'd run directly next to Nigel -throwing the boy off in the process- and then fired a heavy barrage of spells against his unprepared opponent. The trick had worked once before. Perhaps it could work against Jory as well.

Calvin sprinted from his side of the ring to Jory's incredibly abruptly. If the look of confusion on her face said anything, Jory Bateman had absolutely no clue what was going on. Calvin grinned as Jory cast a shaky spell at him that missed by a wide margin. He'd learned that being unpredictable was oftentimes very helpful in duels, and for that he was very grateful.

He was only a few feet away from her now, and he noticed her step back, still too bewildered by his questionable move. She raised her wand to attack, but he noticed she looked a bit nervous. Almost worried that Calvin knew something she didn't.

Instead of throwing a bat-bogey hex at him, Jory decided to go on the defensive, throwing up a shield.

Calvin darted back to the other side as he realized it was going to take longer to beat her this way than it had with Nigel. Jory was clearly a far more experienced dueler.

From the other side of the ring, Calvin threw up a body binder and didn't even wait to see if it would hit before he broke into a sprint into another direction again.

Jory was clearly disoriented by his unorthodox style. She was doing her best to shield his attacks but Calvin had noted with a little happiness that she hadn't cast a single spell since he'd started practicing his little strategy.

Calvin continued to dash around the ring, casting spells furiously and in a frenzy, not even bothering to shield himself.

It was working, too. It got to the point where Jory was completely thrown out of anything resembling a groove. She was completely reeling. And so it didn't take too long for her shields to flicker and falter.

That was when Calvin knew he won.

"Expillarmus!" He shouted. Jory Bateman's shield broke and her wand was sent flying.

Calvin grinned from ear to ear as he heard the announcer say he moved on. That was _fun_. He'd never really gotten the chance to fully try out that strategy, as his duel with Nigel was brief after he started sprinting, but he was glad that he'd done it again. That was definitely a strategy he'd stick to for the rest of the tournament. His opponent had absolutely no answer to him once he'd started it, and if he had to guess nobody else would know what to do either.

Calvin rejoined his team, got a high five from Gregory out of nowhere, and watched the rest of the second round.

Gregory moved on, as did Harriet, so Ilvermorny had three students in the final eight, which Calvin thought was impressive, especially after his school's poor showing in the first round.

Calvin noticed something peculiar when he watched Harriet Schwartz duel. His new style was very similar to her's, which he found amusing since he'd asked her how to dodge like she did in the beginning of the year and had gotten rejected. And now he could basically do what she did. The only difference was that she stayed in the same general part of the ring and dodged while he was everywhere in the second half of his last duel and never tried to be in the same place at once.

Harriet's victory meant that she had to go up against Gabrielle next, and Calvin could tell she was worried, even if she was trying to stay emotionless as always.

* * *

The third round arrived, and Calvin's duel was somehow the first one of the round. His opponent was a boy from Beauxbatons named Burke Astin. Burke was very kind, and wished Calvin good luck right off the bat. It was an interesting contrast to Jory, who tried to bat-bogey him for half of the duel.

The match began when the referee's sparks shot off, and Calvin decided to stay committed to his sprinting strategy. But not right away. First, he needed to understand his opponent a little bit better. He started out by casting a quick _protego _followed by a few offensive spells, and waited to see how Burke would respond.

Burke, as it turned out, was a very defensive dueler, and there didn't seem to be anything overly impressive about him. That being said, you didn't make it to the final eight without being a good duelist, and so there had to be _some_ reason he'd made it this far.

Calvin -deciding that now was as good a time as any to enact his little strategy- bolted to the other side of the ring and began sending a flurry of spells in Burke's direction. Burke, to Calvin's surprise, returned his attacks twofold, and Calvin was lucky to avoid being hit. Slightly shocked, Calvin ran back to the other side of the ring, Burke lighting up the space where he was a few moments before.

Alright. Apparently he'd underestimated his opponent and gotten too cocky.

He tried to regain his composure, putting up a sturdy shield as Burke continued to send a healthy dose of spellfire in Calvin's direction. His opponent was certainly persistent.

"Let's try that one more time," Calvin muttered to himself, not ready to give up quite yet.

He dropped the shield and ran back over to the same area, this time being sure to put up a strong _protego_. Burke did not hold anything back. He was throwing everything he got at Calvin.

Calvin's face spread into a smile as a plan began to form into his head.

He sprinted back towards the edge of the ring, put up a shield, and sat there for a minute, the shimmering golden light in front of him protecting him from Burke's aggressive spell work. Then he ran back, put up a shield, and watched as his opponent continued to attack him from a close range. He grinned when he realized his hunch was true, and Burke had dropped his shield altogether in an effort to disarm him.

"_Expelliarmus…_" he whispered as a red light shot out of his wand and caused Burke to get disarmed.

He was moving on.

_Yes!_

* * *

Truth be told, Calvin did not expect to advance to the last four in the tournament. He was actually a bit surprised. Happy, yes, but still surprised. What was even more surprising was that his matchup for the fourth round tomorrow would be Gregory Taylor. It hadn't really occurred to him that he may have ended up facing up against a teammate, but he supposed he should have known it was possible.

Unfortunately for Ilvermorny, Harriet was eliminated by Gabrielle, but it was clear she didn't go down without a fight. Their duel was long and impressive, and it was clear that Harriet's dodging was beneficial. Gabrielle couldn't get a single spell to land in the beginning, and at first it looked like Harriet may pull off the upset. That all changed in an instant, however, and the tide of the duel changed drastically until Gabrielle was finally able to take Harriet down. Calvin's new friend advanced to the fourth round and would duel against a Hogwarts student the following day named Andy Cornell.

Ilvermorny performed pretty well in the other age brackets, and they had at least one representative in the fourth round for each of them. Professor Greengrass seemed pretty pleased by that.

The final duels concluded and everybody went to the Hogwarts Great Hall for dinner. The entire time Calvin's morale was at an all time high. He was in the Final Four! Sure, he hadn't expected it to happen, especially since he was a first year, but that didn't stop him from being excited. And now that he'd made it this far, there was no reason to stop. He wanted to win the whole thing.

At all costs…

* * *

**Author's note: …And another chapter is wrapped up. This one took a bit longer to write than I would have liked, but whatever. This dueling tournament is one of the ways I was gonna incorporate other characters from the HP universe, so I feel like it was a pretty important thing. I also wanted to establish Gabrielle as a character, since she's going to have a pretty important role down the road.**

**The poll is still up on my profile, so be sure to vote on whether you want this series to be divided into separate installments or not.**

**Thanks for all of the positive feedback so far, I appreciate it when you guys follow, favorite, and review. It's really great, and getting feedback is one of the reasons why I like writing this so much. **

**Until next time,**

**StickWombat.**


	10. Chapter 9: The Dueling Tournament, Pt 2

**A NOTE BEFORE YOU READ (July 6th, 2020):**

**I've done some heavy editing to previous chapters that will have an effect on the rest of this story. I would advise you to read sections at the end of chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7. I don't want to say much more about them because I don't want to spoil anything, but they WILL be crucial to the plot moving forward. I apologize for adding them halfway through, it just took me a lot of time to plan everything for this book.**

**And if you are back after reading all of that new stuff, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**The Ilvermorny Files**

**Book One**

**Chapter 9: The Dueling Tournament, Pt. 2**

**March 4th, 2003**

* * *

Gabrielle Delacour found her new friend the next day by the tree with a view of the lake.

It was exactly where she'd expected him to be.

He sat alone with total concentration as he attempted to levitate a squirrel from fifty meters away. The squirrel was good at dodging, and so it took him a couple of attempts to land a hit.

Gabrielle slowly snuck up behind him and sat down next to him under the tree, unwrapping her last piece of translator taffy. She chewed and swallowed, feeling the ticklish sensation in her ears that indicated the taffy was working.

"Funny seeing you here again," Calvin said as he noticed her presence. He turned his attention away from the squirrel and directed it towards her, running his hand through his shock of blond hair. It ruffled up a bit. "Congrats on moving on to the second day,"

"Likewise," she replied, smiling. She'd been a bit worried about the possibility of the two of them matching up making their friendship weird or competitive, but at least Calvin didn't seem to have a problem with it. "I didn't know you were that good at dueling."

"Me either," he admitted. "I came up with a lot of that stuff on the fly. Didn't expect it to work out as well as it did,"

"It certainly worked well,"

"Your duels went well, too. You're ruthless out there. It was a little scary to watch,"

Gabrielle's smile fell into a frown. She rubbed the back of her neck, a bit uncomfortable. Maybe she'd been wrong…

Calvin noticed her change in demeanor and did his best to backtrack. "I'm not saying you're a scary person," he managed. "Just that you are an intimidating dueler. Which isn't really a bad thing. It's actually kind of cool, I guess. I mean…" he trailed off.

"I think I know what you're trying to say," Gabrielle told him. "Don't worry, I'm not offended."

"Oh. Alright. Good, then."

Neither of them knew what to say after that. Their silence was a bit awkward until Gabrielle finally broke it, trying to address exactly what she'd come here to say. "We may end up dueling each other in the final round," she said, "That is, if we both win one duel first,"

"That shouldn't be too hard for me," Calvin said with over the top bravado in an attempt to lighten the mood that lingered. He puffed up his chest.

Gabrielle laughed a little. "If we do end up dueling, I can guarantee you'll lose,"

"Really?"

She nodded.

He shrugged. "If you say so. Promise you won't take it too personally when I kick your butt,"

"I don't know if that's a promise I can keep, if I'm going to be completely honest. I like to keep my promises,"

"I suppose that's fair," Calvin conceded diplomatically. "But I'll try not to get offended if you end up wiping the floor with me. Just don't think I'll go easy on you because we're friends,"

"I wouldn't expect it," Internally, Gabrielle sighed with relief. She'd just made a new friend and didn't want to lose him because of a stupid competition.

Calvin returned his attention to the squirrel a little bit away from him, and an idea popped into Gabrielle's head as she watched one of his errant spells head in the direction of the castle.

"Wanna go exploring around Hogwarts? There's still some time before today's matches begin,"

Calvin considered her proposal. "What if we get lost, though?"

She waved him off. "We won't get lost, trust me,"

Calvin looked at her quizzically. "You sure?"

"Promise…"

* * *

As it turned out, Gabrielle's promise didn't mean as much as she had hoped it would. The two of them found themselves completely lost somewhere on the seventh floor with only ten minutes remaining before the tournament started up again. They'd been astray for the past half hour and the more they tried to orient themselves the worse things got.

"Maybe this was a bad idea," Gabrielle finally admitted when the two of them showed up to the third dead end corridor in the past five minutes. "Hogwarts is way harder to navigate than Beauxbatons. What kind of madman designs moving stairways? And the only way to tell which hallway is which is by looking at the portraits"

Calvin just grumbled. "Maybe we should just give up," he murmured, leaning against the wall next to a tapestry of what appeared to be a man in strange clothes surrounded by four trolls, each of them wearing fluffy pink tutus.

_What an odd choice for a tapestry, _Calvin thought as the man and the trolls waved at him. At least they hadn't been here before. Gabrielle was right, the best way to know where you were in Hogwarts castle was by looking at the paintings. And Calvin was 100% sure he hadn't seen this particular one yet.

"We can't give up," Gabrielle insisted. "There's got to be some way to get back quickly. We just need to find it…"

She started to pace back and forth nervously. She started tugging on her hair, pacing faster and faster.

Calvin looked at his watch. Eight minutes before they were late. They'd probably both have to forfeit unless a miracle came out of nowhere. He looked at the tapestry right next to him, an idea forming in his head. "Why don't we just talk to the pictures?"

"What?" Gabrielle stopped pacing.

"Ask someone in here what the quickest way to the great hall is from here," Calvin clarified, gesturing at the tapestry. "The paintings in Ilvermorny know all about the castle. You can't exactly trust all of em, but maybe they know something.

"That… might work. Maybe there's a secret passage or something that they know about." She walked up to the tapestry. "Hey, do any of you know the quickest way to the great hall?"

The trolls in the tutus just looked at her quizzically, but the man seemed to know what she meant. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like this particular tapestry was enchanted to hold conversations with wizards and witches. He opened his mouth but absolutely no sound came out.

"Crap," Gabrielle frowned. "That's not supposed to happen…"

"Why not?"

"Have you ever met a portrait that doesn't make any noise? Even the ones that don't talk make noise occasionally. This guy is clearly trying to communicate with us. Doesn't that seem off to you?"

"I guess it does, now that you mention it. But why wouldn't it make any noise?"

"Somebody probably used the silencing charm on it. I imagine a tapestry with eight trolls can get pretty annoying,"

"Do you know how to counteract the silencing charm?"

Gabrielle shook her head. "It doesn't show up until fourth year." She scowled. "It's stupid, though. You'd think it would be the kind of thing you need to learn earlier on. Especially since we learn the silencing charm in third year,"

"You'd think…" Calvin echoed distantly. The little man in the tapestry was waving his arms. Pointing behind them. Trying to get their attention…

"Poor little guy. I think he wants something…"

Behind them, somebody cleared their voice. Calvin heard the noise and turned around to see his defense professor standing behind him and Gabrielle, arms crossed disappointedly.

"...Professor-" Calvin began, surprised. He was interrupted before he could get any further.

"The two of you are nearly late for your duels. Quickly, follow me so I can get both of you back to the great hall in time…"

Gabrielle looked at him, shrugged, and followed Greengrass. Calvin was a bit more reluctant, his suspicions about his defense against the dark arts teacher still rather prevalent in his mind. What was she doing on the seventh floor? Why wasn't she in the great hall with everybody else? It was fishy for sure. Had she been following them? If she hadn't been, Professor Greengrass had the uncanny ability to show up at convenient times. First she'd swooped in when Mr. Sagan gave him detention and now she was swooping in out of nowhere to help him and Gabrielle get un-lost. He couldn't help but feel suspicious of her.

Gabrielle was gesturing at him to hurry up. She was still following Greengrass. Reluctantly, he tried to catch up, regretting not telling Gabrielle about his suspicions about his professor and how often it seemed like she was watching him.

Professor Greengrass led them to a strange looking suit of armor, dented and beaten that had a fine layer of dust on it.

"Fizzing whizbees," she whispered, and the armor slid to the side.

The part of Calvin that mistrusted his defense professor took backseat once he saw that Hogwarts had secret passages. Curiosity trumped suspicion as he considered the possibilities. _Does this mean Ilvermorny actually has secret passages? I know a lot of people have said they don't, but Ilvermorny castle is very similar to Hogwarts… at the very least there's a chance._

Calvin broke away from those thoughts and followed Gabrielle and Professor Greengrass through the dark and dank passageway. Water dripped through the ceiling and hit the floor. The smell was… certainly something.

But the trip through the passageway didn't last long. Soon enough the three of them exited on the first floor in a hallway connecting to the great hall.

"Gabrielle, go ahead while you can," Professor Greengrass said. "Your duel is first…"

Gabrielle started walking towards the dueling ring. Calvin made to follow her, but Professor Greengrass put her hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Don't get lost like that again. You nearly missed your duel."

Calvin shuddered. "Yes, Professor."

"Go along, then. You should watch the duel so you know who you're up against."

* * *

Calvin took a seat in the crowd next to his opponent in the next match, Gregory Taylor. Gregory was friendly with Calvin for a rather brief period of time, but the second year's friendliness did not expand much beyond pleasantries and greetings, and Gregory stopped talking to Calvin entirely once Gabrielle's duel started. Which was understandable, he supposed. If Gregory was more focused on winning than budding friendship with a teammate, Calvin shouldn't try to interfere. In fact, Calvin felt like he was honestly getting too close to his opponents. He didn't want to duel Gregory, and he certainly didn't want to duel Gabrielle. Which sucked. It would've been a whole lot easier if he hadn't made any new friends at this tournament. Well, perhaps Gregory was more of an acquaintance then a friend. (But that high five from the day previously had totally meant something, right? …Right?) Gabrielle definitely was a friend, though and Calvin was worried that his reservations about any duels with people he had good relationships with would affect his performance.

Calvin thought about this for a while, and in the meantime Gabrielle absolutely trounced Hogwarts' Andy Cornell. Her pathway to the final match had been swift and effortless, with the slight hiccup known as Harriet Schwartz, who had held her own against Gabrielle for quite some time. A rather large part of the audience would have expected Gabrielle Delacour to win the whole tournament regardless of her opponent following her dominant run. That group included her mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law who had all travelled great distances with the expectation of a great victory on the morning of March 4th, 2003.

But one match had to be finished before the 1st and 2nd year age bracket finals were to begin.

Calvin found himself opposite Gregory Taylor about five minutes later, trying but failing to calm himself down. The jitters of exceeding expectations were starting to come back to him. He'd never expected to make it this far. Sure, he'd hoped, but he'd never expected to win any more than a match or two.

But all that mattered now was exceeding his expectations even more. And if he wanted to do that, he'd have to totally lock in and focus. No distractions. Only a singular and competitive determination to win.

And so he did. Lock in and focus, that was. He thought about what he knew about Gregory's dueling tendencies from what he'd observed in practice and during yesterday's matches. He was a rather balanced dueler, if a bit patient, and content to allow his opponent to exhaust themselves and wait for the perfect time to strike. He was a smart dueler, with a damn near impenetrable shield charm, and he couldn't really be fooled into making a mistake unless the conditions were very favorable. Calvin knew the best way to win was by breaking Gregory's _protego_. Of course, it would be challenging getting past his shield. Calvin had never been able to do it during practice, and he'd overheard Ethan Matthews about a week prior saying it would probably be the best one in the entire tournament. Needless to say, Gregory had developed a reputation for his strong _protego_. Calvin had faced off against him a lot before, but he'd only won once, and even he admitted he'd been a little bit lucky. He figured the dueling style he'd adopted the previous day, would work. After all, it had worked yesterday, and truth be told, it was probably the main reason he'd made it this far.

Calvin was a big fan of his newfound strategy. Who knew running around the dueling ring all willy-nilly was so effective. It was just unconventional enough to keep his opponents from planning a formidable attack against him.

The referee signaled the start of the duel and Calvin decided to get moving right off the bat. He sprinted to the leftmost end of the ring and then bolted right before Gregory could even register what was happening to him. He flung a trio of body binders in the direction of Gregory, but they were deflected by a protego charm set up in the nick of time.

Crap.

Gregory returned the favor with a tripping hex that Calvin barely ducked. Clearly he was at least a little bit prepared for Calvin's unconventional dueling.

Calvin decided to not let that faze him. He continued to shoot spells from his wand, doing what he could to get in a groove while still darting around the ring. Unfortunately, Gregory seemed singularly determined to prevent Calvin from ever entering a groove of any type.

Phooey.

A spell whizzed past Calvin's face as he dashed right, jarring him slightly. Gregory was stunningly accurate despite Calvin's constant movements. That last spell had nearly landed! It was the closest any of them had come, and Calvin could've sworn he felt the energy permeating from it. Perhaps it would be wise to put some magical energy into defense and put up a light shield that could withstand a hit of spellfire or two.

Or perhaps not.

Calvin hoped his reckless attitude wouldn't hurt him later on, but for now he was focused on winning at all costs. He was getting really into it. A win was the only option now.

Calvin twisted to avoid a bat-bogey. It seemed like Gregory was getting into it, too. The bat-bogey was the first truly _nasty_ spell he'd sent off so far.

Oh, it was _so_ on…

Sprinting. Dodging. Bobbing. Weaving. Calvin stuck to his strategy as he attempted to throw off Gregory with increasing determination and fervor. The two Ilvermorny students were locked in an aggressive struggle, with neither of them gaining any sort of advantage or upper hand for longer for a few seconds. Gregory's shield charm held against the test of Calvin's spellfire, and Calvin managed to avoid getting hit while running by any of the dangerous jinxes or hexes that the second year had begun to incorporate into his repertoire.

Calvin sprinted towards Gregory, fired off a few spells, and darted back to a safer distance, breathing heavily. He grimaced as the spells completely missed their mark. Ugh. He was getting tired, and it was hurting his ability to be effective.

_Think. Think. Look at Gregory. Does he look tired?_ Calvin chastised himself. _No. So I shouldn't be tired yet…_

He grit his teeth and fired off four tripping hexes in a row. And then four more. And then four more. Calvin's spells collided with Gregory's shield, which was finally beginning to react by showing cracks and faltering. Calvin grinned just as his opponent frowned. Progress, finally…

And so he kept it up. Four more spells. And then four more. Gregory, to his credit, wasn't going to give up. He matched every single spell that Calvin tossed his direction and very clearly wasn't ready to give up just because of a little bit of pushback. In fact, his spells were actually messing up Calvin's rhythm and flow a bit. But Gregory's notoriously strong shield was showing signs of wear and tear. So much wear and tear, in fact, that Gregory was forced to drop his shield for a moment just to recast it and keep it strong. Calvin tried to take advantage of those few seconds when Gregory was vulnerable, but his aim was off and the disarming charm he cast flew aimlessly above the Ilvermorny second year's head. Dang it.

Calvin kept up on his personal mission to destroy Gregory's now rejuvenated shield. Breaking his shield was the key to success. The key to winning. Calvin was sure of it. He dashed forwards, shot spells from his wand until he couldn't anymore, and retreated before Gregory could hit him with anything. Then he threw more spells. And more. And more. Pretty soon, it got to the point where Calvin was casting so many spells so quickly that he didn't even have any time to rest in between. He stopped running around the ring altogether and focused all of his energy into breaking that stinking shield.

And then it broke. A body-binder hit a now defenceless Gregory Taylor, followed by a disarmer. Calvin's Ilvermorny teammate dropped his wand, and just like that, it was over.

And onto the finals for Calvin Edgley.

* * *

Calvin only got about five minutes to rest before he was needed in the dueling ring once more so he could compete for the title of best duelist in the lowest age bracket.

He and Gabrielle met in the middle to shake hands awkwardly. It was easy to tell that neither of them wanted to lose their new friendship today but both were worried that would be the case because of their competitiveness.

"Don't get your feelings hurt when I win," Calvin tried to joke after a moment of uncomfortable silence. He'd suspected he may have to face off against his new friend in this tournament for a while, but it felt different now that it was actually happening. A lot was on the line for this thing. Bragging rights were very important to young wizards and witches, after all. In fact, an overly optimistic side of Calvin had been hoping for the past few months that the other first years at Ilvermorny would finally talk to him if he did something as impressive as win the inter-house dueling tournament. Sure, a realistic side of Calvin tried to push it away, but the idea still rooted in his head. It gave him incentive to try to win.

So he tried to disregard any budding friendship with Gabrielle for the time being and start looking at her as an opponent rather than a new friend. It was time to win, and it seemed like Gabrielle was thinking the same thing.

Calvin and Gabrielle both walked to opposite sides of the dueling ring, both gripping their wands tightly. Calvin knew this was going to be his toughest match so far, and he doubted that was even a close contest. But he also knew he hadn't gotten here by accident. His strategy of constantly moving around had been effective against difficult opponents, and it hadn't let him down yet. He just had to hope that trend would continue.

The referee walked out into the middle of the ring, shot up some sparks, and hurried to get out of the way. It was rather amusing for the spectators, and a few of them chuckled.

The duel had begun. Calvin, determined to ride or die with his new strategy, bolted out of the way of a disarming charm that went right where his face had been a few seconds previously. Swiftly, he returned fire and sent off a stunner that bounced off of Gabrielle's hastily put together shield. He made a break for it, not giving his opponent a chance to touch him. Not that it prevented her from trying. Gabrielle sent off about five different spells, each of them gradually drawing closer as he bolted around the edge of the ring. Truth be told, he was lucky to be untouched by any of her spellfire.

Calvin decided to get tricky the next time around, and so he tried sending spells in Gabrielle's direction while sprinting. It was ineffective, however, and his energy was wasted. His spells were simply absorbed by her _protego_-which was growing stronger by the minute-and she continued to launch a barrage of spells at him.

And so Calvin had to run yet again to avoid her spellfire. Gabrielle was _relentless_. She didn't let up for a single second, and Calvin probably would have really admired that if he wasn't on the receiving end of her unending attack.

Calvin tried to keep up his strategy, but it eventually became clear that it wasn't working. Gabrielle was simply too quick, powerful, and accurate. She was easily the most talented person he'd ever dueled.

It was only a couple of minutes later when Calvin realized that he had to stop running and try something different. So he threw up a shield, and for the first time in a long time, _stayed still_. He'd been lucky to last this long, but it was time to stop running and start standing his ground.

He started casting spells. Not many at first, but the frequency and intensity of his spells grew as he became more comfortable and established a rhythm. Of course, still he made sure to dedicate a lot of his energy into holding a _protego_, since Gabrielle was matching all of his attacks, but he was doing pretty well and eventually he managed to flip the script of the duel. Gabrielle no longer had such an advantage, and the scales began to balance.

They stayed locked in an intense stalemate for five minutes, each of them increasing their offensive attention more and more, trying to top the other. If Gabrielle rattled off five body-binders in under a minute, Calvin would retaliate with six and increase the power of his shield. And then Gabrielle would try to outdo that. And so it continued. On and on. Over and over again, they would do anything to top their opponent and break this stalemate. Anything to gain an advantage, to win.

Naturally, the two of them couldn't keep up their energy sapping duel forever. But neither of them was willing to admit that fact, and so they kept on pushing. Harder and harder. Both of them were willing to fight until they passed out.

Calvin winced as he felt a particularly strong knockback jinx connect with his shield and send him stumbling backwards a few feet. He was weakening, even if he didn't want to admit it. He felt so depleted of energy. So drained.

He wanted to give up, but he knew he wouldn't. Couldn't, actually. He knew he'd hate himself if he lost this close to victory.

So he sucked it up and kept dueling. Deep down, he knew he couldn't keep it up for more than a minute longer, though. In a fit of desperation, Calvin pushed himself even harder and started throwing every spell he knew of in Gabrielle's direction. She managed to hold her shield against it, but it was clear how hard it was for her to do so. She was just as tired as he was.

Calvin refused to let up, and he continued to cast spell after spell until there were spots left.

_Anything to win._

The barrage continued, and Gabrielle had to do everything in her power to hold her own and not collapse from exhaustion.

The audience could clearly tell something was not right. They had once been cheering, but that cheering had stopped a long time ago. Expressions of worry were painted on all of their faces, particularly the faces of Gabrielle's family.

Calvin cast a trio of stunners, and Gabrielle's shield flickered. One more well placed hit would surely end the duel. One more well placed hit would surely guarantee victory. Calvin ignored every molecule in his body that was screaming at him to stop. Every fabric of his being begging and pleading for rest. To collapse and give up. His knees wobbled and his leg shook. The spots in his eyes only grew larger, but he could still barely make out Gabrielle's shield breaking down entirely. She stumbled, and it was clear she was breathing heavily.

He coughed. A little bit of blood came out. How strange. Normally that would alarm him, but not now. He would not quit until he won.

And so, shakily, he muttered a single word.

"_Expillarmus_,"

And then everything went black for Calvin Edgley.

* * *

**Author's note: That concludes chapter nine! This is the first time I've really ended on a cliffhanger, so hopefully the gap between this chapter and the next is shorter than the last one. Part of the reason it took so long is because I had to write in the unspeakable scenes, and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with that. I also had to do a lot of reconstructing the plot, because I wasn't happy with the direction I wanted to take the story. I feel good about it now, though. **

**Be sure to vote on my poll on my profile page, because I'm actually pretty close to wrapping up year one. Also, favorite, follow and review if you feel like it, because I would really appreciate feedback.**

**Thanks again for reading, and have a great day!**

**-Stick Wombat**


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